Humanities & Social Sciences

Pharmacology and Nutritional Intervention in the Treatment of Disease is a book dealing with an important research field that has worldwide significance. Its aim is to strengthen the research base of this field of investigation as it yields knowledge that has important implications for biomedicine, public health and biotechnology. The book has brought together an interdisciplinary group of contributors and prominent scholars from different parts of the world. The basic purpose of this book was to promote interaction and discussion of problems of mutual interests among people in related fields everywhere. The main subjects of the book include nutrition, mechanisms underlying treatments, physiological aspects of vitamins and trace elements, antioxidants: regulation, signalling, infection and inflammation, and degenerative and chronic diseases.

Bruno Latour is one of the leading figures in Social Sciences today, but his contributions are also widely recognised in the arts. His theories ‘flourished’ in the 1980s in the aftermath of the structuralism wave and generated new concepts and methodologies for the understanding of the social. In the past decade, Latour and his Actor-Network Theory (ANT) have gained popularity among researchers in the field of architecture. Latour for Architects is the first introduction to the key concepts and ideas of Bruno Latour that are relevant to architects. First, the book discusses critically how specific methods and insights from his philosophy can inspire new thinking in architecture and design pedagogy. Second, it explores examples from architectural practice and urban design, and reviews recent attempts to extend the methods of ANT into the fields of architectural and urban studies. Third, the book advocates an ANT-inspired approach to architecture, and examines how its methodological insights can trace new research avenues in the field, reflecting meticulously on its epistemological offerings. Drawing on many lively examples from the world of architectural practice, the book makes a compelling argument about the agency of architectural design and the role architects can play in re-ordering the world we live in. Following Latour’s philosophy offers a new way to handle all the objects of human and nonhuman collective life, to re-examine the role of matter in design practice, and to redefine the forms of social, political and ethical associations that bind us together in cities.

The volume presents the Acts of the SIPED International Conference "Permanent Education From the Early Ages of Life", in which the concept of education is explored as a process that continues throughout all the life and is built in several training environments.

This volume, which can also be used as a manual due to the linking of its contents, shows how dynamics of space and gender also affect contemporary political issues.

This volume explores the relationship between justice and freedom in Hegel’s practical philosophy, with a particular focus on the pivotal concept of reciprocal recognition. The contributors analyze the intersubjective relations between individuals and institutions through the lens of Hegel and demonstrate how his account of justice and freedom can be applied to address pressing issues in political philosophy. Despite extensive scrutiny of the concept of justice by political philosophers, Hegel’s unique account has been notably overlooked. What sets Hegel apart is his emphasis on the inseparable link between justice and freedom. Freedom is inextricably tied to an account of just social relations and institutions, while justice itself is intertwined with a robust endorsement of freedom. The chapters comprising this volume examine three crucial dimensions of Hegel’s framework for freedom and justice. First, the contributors address how Hegel’s distinctive integration of freedom and justice sheds new light on the nature of his practical philosophy. Second, they relate Hegel’s theory to other prominent accounts of justice, including Rawlsian forms of Kantian constructivism, Habermas’ neo‑Kantian discourse theory, republican views, neo‑Aristotelian accounts, and critical theory approaches. Finally, the contributors apply Hegel’s reconstructed theory of justice to ongoing debates encompassing criminal justice, distributive justice, global justice, environmental justice, and issues related to racial and gender justice, as well as populism. "Justice and Freedom in Hegel" will appeal to scholars and advanced students engaged in research on Hegel’s practical philosophy, 19th‑century philosophy, and political philosophy.

Labour exploitation is a highly topical though complex issue that has international resonance for those concerned with social justice and social welfare, but there is a lack of research available about it. This book, part of the Studies in Social Harm series, is the first to look at labour exploitation from a social harm perspective, arguing that, as a global social problem, it should be located within the broader study of work-based harm. Written by an expert in policy orientated research, he critiques existing approaches to the study of workplace exploitation, abuse and forced labour. Mapping out a new sub-discipline, this innovative book aims to shift power from employers to workers to reduce levels of labour exploitation and work-based harm. It is relevant to academics from many fields as well as legislators, policy makers, politicians, employers, union officials, activists and consumers.

The process of transformation which saw the Byzantine Empire and the world of the Early Middle Ages develop from the Late Antique Imperium Romanum led to changes in all areas of life. The central topic of this volume of international contributions is the question of how the historiography of the period confronted these changes.

This open access book reports on innovative methods, technologies and strategies for mastering uncertainty in technical systems. Despite the fact that current research on uncertainty is mainly focusing on uncertainty quantification and analysis, this book gives emphasis to innovative ways to master uncertainty in engineering design, production and product usage alike. It gathers authoritative contributions by more than 30 scientists reporting on years of research in the areas of engineering, applied mathematics and law, thus offering a timely, comprehensive and multidisciplinary account of theories and methods for quantifying data, model and structural uncertainty, and of fundamental strategies for mastering uncertainty. It covers key concepts such as robustness, flexibility and resilience in detail. All the described methods, technologies and strategies have been validated with the help of three technical systems, i.e. the Modular Active Spring-Damper System, the Active Air Spring and the 3D Servo Press, which have been in turn developed and tested during more than ten years of cooperative research. Overall, this book offers a timely, practice-oriented reference guide to graduate students, researchers and professionals dealing with uncertainty in the broad field of mechanical engineering.

Humanitarianism as a moral concept and an organized practice has become a major factor in world society. It channels an enormous amount of resources and serves as an argument for different kinds of interference into the "internal affairs" of countries and regions. At the same time, and for these very reasons, it is an ideal testing ground for successful and unsuccessful cooperation across borders. Humanitarianism and the Challenges of Cooperation examines the multiple humanitarianisms of today as a testing ground for new ways of global cooperation. General trends in the contemporary transformation of humanitarianism are studied and individual cases of how humanitarian actors cooperate with others on the ground are investigated. This book offers a highly innovative, empirically informed account of global humanitarianism from the point of view of cooperation research in which internationally renowned contributors analyse broad trends and present case studies based on meticulous fieldwork. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in the areas of political science, international relations and humanitarianism. It is also a valuable resource for humanitarian aid workers.

While the representation of women in science is on the rise, this increase is not of the same magnitude in all fields, such as mathematics and computer science, for example. What's more, their presence decreases as one moves up the hierarchy of academic positions. The persistence of these disparities and inequalities is explained by the strength of stereotypes and ideological postures that maintain women and men in differentiated and hierarchical social roles. These stereotypes, ingrained and unconscious gendered representations, induce biases that can interfere in evaluation processes, whether of careers or research projects, but also determine and guide scientific approaches. Given the complexity of the phenomena that lead to the (re)production of inequalities, what actions should be taken? How can we ensure their efficiency for the ecosystem as a whole? This book, a follow-up to the Gender in Research conference held in December 2020, brings together scientists and funding agencies to address these issues and provide some answers. The contributions come from a variety of contexts, depending on whether they are written by scientists or funders, and present analyses of different kinds, but always based on a reflective approach. This diversity allows us to reaffirm that equality is the concern of all players in the research ecosystem, whose ability to dialogue and collaborate is decisive in guaranteeing the coherence and efficiency of our actions. This book is aimed at all those involved in conducting and/or evaluating research, whatever their scientific discipline.

Heterogeneity shapes education, society and upbringing, and challenges us to take a closer look. This anthology explores the theme of heterogeneity from interdisciplinary and international perspectives and seeks to move beyond simplistic understandings of the concept. The contributions draw on a range of disciplinary perspectives – from educational sciences and subject-specific didactics to critical-reflective approaches. They examine the interactions and interconnections between social, cultural, cognitive and institutional categories of difference. The aim is to paint a multi-layered picture of heterogeneity as a constructed, context-dependent and dynamic phenomenon that presents both opportunities and challenges for educational practice and research. The authors demonstrate how approaches sensitive to heterogeneity can help to recognise differences and proactively integrate their added value into educational settings. Whether theoretical foundations, empirical analyses or practice-oriented insights – the contributions gathered here invite readers not only to understand heterogeneity, but also to reflect on it from various perspectives and in an interdisciplinary manner. A book for all those who wish to take a nuanced view of the complexities of educational issues and help shape the dialogue on heterogeneity and the specific educational contexts of the 21st century.

Political Science; Public Administration; Crime

This book presents the changing roles of urban governments and how local governments struggle to gain administrative, fiscal, and political power to combat current urban challenges in Kazakhstan. Focusing on the cities and regions selected by the national government of Kazakhstan to be the drivers of national economic development, the author analyses the impact of decentralization on the role of local governments. The book examines the practical experiences of city and regional governments with an emphasis on urban planning, public investment in national projects, and management of urban transport. Due to the complexity and irregular distribution of political reforms at different levels of local government in Kazakhstan, three separate studies are presented, each looking at a specific aspect of decentralization reform and local government function related to physical urban development and distribution of public investment. The author argues that, if the national government of Kazakhstan wants to concentrate economic resources in urban agglomerations, it is not enough to assume that local governments are ready to play the role of efficient planners and managers of urban development. A useful analysis illustrating cities and urban conglomerations as engines of growth in economic development, this book will be of interest to academics studying Central Asian Studies, in particular political and economic development, Development Studies, and Urban Studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license

This book deconstructs androcentric approaches to spacetimeinherited from western modernity through its theoretical frame of the chronotropics. It sheds light on the literary acts of archival disruption, radical remapping, and epistemic marronnage by twenty-first-century Caribbean women writers to restore a connection to spacetime, expanding it within and beyond the region. Arguing that the chronotropics points to a vocation for social justice and collective healing, this pan-Caribbean volume returns to autochthonous ontologies and epistemologies to propose a poetics and politics of the chronotropics that is anticolonial, gender inclusive, pluralistic, and non-anthropocentric. This is an open access book.

The book traces the political struggles of politicians and civil servants, judges and academics to establish a European Union from the Hague Congress of Europe in 1948 to the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. Frank Schorkopf reconstructs the project of a European political order as a coexistence and collaboration between three lines of thinking – constitutionalism, governmentalism, and pragmatism – in which constitutional authority is undecided. The sixteen chapters make it clear that although the actors wanted to create something new, they were hardly able to break away from their constitutional-history perspectives and were constantly confronted with classic questions about the architecture of power: questions of legitimacy and acceptance, of fundamental rights protection and identity.