A hardheaded book that confronts and outlines possible
solutions to a seemingly intractable problem: that helping the poor
often hurts the environment, and vice versa. Can we fight
poverty and ...inequality while protecting the environment? The
challenges are obvious. To rise out of poverty is to consume more
resources, almost by definition. And many measures to combat
pollution lead to job losses and higher prices that mainly hurt the
poor. In Unsustainable Inequalities, economist Lucas
Chancel confronts these difficulties head-on, arguing that the
goals of social justice and a greener world can be compatible, but
that progress requires substantial changes in public policy.
Chancel begins by reviewing the problems. Human actions have put
the natural world under unprecedented pressure. The poor are least
to blame but suffer the most-forced to live with pollutants that
the polluters themselves pay to avoid. But Chancel shows that
policy pioneers worldwide are charting a way forward. Building on
their success, governments and other large-scale organizations must
start by doing much more simply to measure and map environmental
inequalities. We need to break down the walls between traditional
social policy and environmental protection-making sure, for
example, that the poor benefit most from carbon taxes. And we need
much better coordination between the center, where policies are
set, and local authorities on the front lines of deprivation and
contamination. A rare work that combines the quantitative skills of
an economist with the argumentative rigor of a philosopher,
Unsustainable Inequalities shows that there is still hope
for solving even seemingly intractable social problems.
How to leverage existing resources to meet the current and future needs of cities
Crumbling streets and bridges. Poorly performing schools and inadequate social services. These are common complaints ...in cities, which too often struggle just to keep the lights on, much less make the long-term investments necessary for future generations.
It doesn't have to be this way. This book by two internationally recognized experts in public finance describes a new way of restoring economic vitality and financial stability to cities, using steps that already have been proven remarkably successful. The key is unlocking social, human, and economic wealth that cities already own but is out of sight-or "hidden." A focus on existing public wealth helps to shift attention and resources from short-term spending to longer-term investments that can vastly raise the quality of life for many generations of urban residents.
A crucial first step is to understand a city's balance sheet-too few cities comprehend how valuable a working tool this can be. With this in hand, taxpayers, politicians, and investors can better recognize the long-term consequences of political decisions and make choices that mobilize real returns rather than rely on more taxes, debt, or austerity.
Another hidden asset is real estate. Even poor cities own large swathes of poorly utilized land, or they control underperforming utilities and other commercial assets. Most cities could more than double their investments with smarter use of these commercial assets. Managing the city's assets smartly through the authors' proposed Urban Wealth Funds-at arm's-length from short-term political influence-will enable cities to ramp up much needed infrastructure investments.
After Austerity Taylor-Gooby, Peter; Leruth, Benjamin; Chung, Heejung
08/2017
eBook
European welfare states are undergoing profound change, driven by globalisation, technical changes, and population ageing. More immediately the aftermath of the Great Recession and unprecedented ...levels of immigration have imposed additional pressures. This book examines welfare state transformations across a representative range of European countries and at the EU level, and considers likely new directions in social policy. It reviews the dominant neo-liberal austerity response and discusses social investment, fightback, welfare chauvinism and protectionism. It argues that the class solidarities and cleavages that shaped the development of welfare states are no longer powerful. Tensions surrounding divisions between old and young, women and men, immigrants and denizens, and the winners in a new more competitive world and those who feel left behind are becoming steadily more important. European countries have entered a period of greater political instability and this is reflected in policy directions. Austerity predominates nearly everywhere, but patterns of social investment, protectionism, neo-Keynesian intervention and fightback vary between countries. We identify areas of convergence and difference in European welfare state futures.
China's extraordinarily rapid economic growth since 1978, driven by market- oriented reforms, has set world records and continued unabated, despite predictions of an inevitable slowdown. In The State ...Strikes Back: The End of Economic Reform in China?, the renowned China scholar Nicholas R. Lardy argues that China's future growth prospects could be equally bright but are shadowed by the specter of resurgent state dominance, which has begun to diminish the vital role of the market and private firms in China's economy. Lardy's book is a timely sequel to his path-breaking Markets Over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China (Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2014). This book mobilizes new data to trace how President Xi Jinping has consistently championed state-owned or controlled enterprises, encouraging local political leaders and financial institutions to prop up ailing, underperforming companies that are a drag on China's potential. As with his previous book, Lardy's perspective departs from conventional wisdom, especially in its contention that China could achieve a high growth rate for the next two decades—if it reverses course and returns to the path of market- oriented reforms.
Conflict Resolution Actors, Dynamics and Cases deals with multiple concepts and themes of the broad subject area of conflict resolution, seeking to highlight empirical studies that examine several ...topics from conflict prevention to peacebuilding, including conflict management, institution building, the role of formal and informal actors, the features of conflicts in different political contexts and the methods and strategies used for resolution or transformation (mediation, non-violence, reconciliation, transitional justice, second track diplomacy, peace education, post-conflict reconstruction, among others) in intra- and inter-state conflicts. The book is open to several methodological approaches, focusing on empirical studies that address several cases, including studies on Cyprus, the South Caucasus region, DR Congo, the Middle East region, Tunisia and Iraq, as well as on the role of regional organizations such as the European Union in peace-making and peacebuilding. Conceived this way, this edited volume on conflict resolution complements existing books on the theme, seeking not only to apply conflict resolutions theoretical frameworks and concepts to contemporary case studies but also to contribute, based on these empirical studies, to advance the academic debate towards critical perspectives that guide the conflict resolution field to more pluralist, emancipatory and transformative approaches.
This book will appeal to scholars and policymakers who deal with and/or are conducting research on the factors of economic growth. At present, there is no unified growth model that is feasible for ...every investigation. As such, this volume offers key insights into the factors that are most relevant in explaining growth variation at country, regional and metropolitan levels. In order to acquaint the reader with the concepts related to the subject, two theoretical chapters detail the schools of thought and the models that were formulated in the past. Three empirical chapters then present an up-to-date and a multi-level investigation, using the most comprehensive models, for the European Union. The results of this book are policy-oriented and will serve to help close the gaps between EU countries and regions.
The second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy, co-edited by two leading scholars in the international relations subfield of public diplomacy, includes 16 more chapters from the ...first. Ten years later, a new global landscape of public diplomacy has taken shape, with major programs in graduate-level public diplomacy studies worldwide.
What separates this handbook from others is its legacy and continuity from the first edition. This first edition line-up was more military-focused than this edition, a nod to the work of Philip M. Taylor, to whom this updated edition is dedicated. This edition includes US content, but all case studies are outside the United States, not only to appeal to a global audience of scholars and practitioners, but also as a way of offering something fresher than the US/UK-centric competition. In Parts 1–4, original contributors are retained, many with revised editions, but new faces emerge. Parts 5 and 6 include 16 global case studies in public diplomacy, expanding the number of contributors by ten. The concluding part of the book includes chapters on digital and corporate public diplomacy, and a signature final chapter on the noosphere and noopolitik as they relate to public diplomacy.
Designed for a broad audience, the Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy is encyclopedic in its range and depth of content, yet is written in an accessible style that will appeal to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
This volume investigates the history, contexts, agendas, and initiatives associated with the OECD's educational impact globally. The goal is to present information, case studies and empirical ...research about the development of the OECD's educational agenda as a whole.
