Humanities & Social Sciences

Based on New Zealand Election Study (NZES) data from a sample of 2,830 eligible voters, A Bark But No Bite explores a puzzle. While there was a lot of talk about inequality before the 2014 general election in New Zealand, and during the campaign, concern about inequality appeared to have no tangible effect on the election outcome. This book shows that, by its attention to the concerns of middle ground voters, the National Government had reduced the potential of policy differences to drive voter choices. Perceptions of competence and effective leadership were National’s strongest suit, crowding out voter concerns over matters of policy. When voters did consider policy, inequality and related concerns were second to the economy. Traditional priorities about health and education, and perceptions of party differences on these matters, had faded into the background. Meanwhile, voters doubted the opposition Labour Party’s ability to govern effectively in an alternative coalition to that of the National-led government. Labour’s policies were too many. In various ways, they would have chipped away at inequality, but lacked a coherent narrative and presentation. This book confirms that Labour’s proposal to increase the age for receipt of New Zealand superannuation gained Labour no new votes. Hopes that the ‘missing million’ people who failed to turn out to vote in 2011 would vote in 2014 and give an advantage to the left were unfulfilled. A comprehensive study of the 2014 election, this book provides a detailed account of all these findings, and a host of others.

How can the individual find the road to emancipation if modernity, which promises it to him, turns out to be a cage? If he is ensnared and not liberated by social, political, economic and technical-scientific progress, lost in the labyrinth of the big cities? Works from the last decades of the 19th century by Ibsen, Bang, Strindberg, Obstfelder and Claussen show the acute perception of the dilemma, but also invite one to venture into the reading of the signs of the modern: a path with an uncertain outcome, but one that produces decisive results for literature. Heirs to Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism, open to the horizons of Symbolism, these Scandinavian authors inaugurate European Modernism.

Die Verbindung von Fleisch und Männlichkeit hat eine enorme kulturelle Relevanz - auch für vegane Ernährung. Eine soziologische Perspektive auf den Ernährungswandel zeigt, wie dieser sozial und kulturell strukturiert ist: Zwischen dem Lebensmittel Fleisch, veganer Ernährung, Körper, Gesundheit und Geschlecht spannt sich ein gesellschaftliches Konfliktfeld auf. Martin Winter untersucht diese Zusammenhänge mit großer theoretischer Tiefe in seiner breit angelegten qualitativen empirischen Studie. Dabei kann er die komplexen Bedingungen der Popularisierung und Normalisierung veganer Ernährung sowie die Reproduktion und das Aufbrechen hegemonialer Männlichkeitskonstruktionen nachweisen.

The twelve essays gathered in this volume address phenomena currently debated in tense and aspect research, elaborating on three thematic cores: 1) the context-sensitivity of tense and aspect and their relationships with neighbouring categories, 2) their interaction with adverbs, 3) their functioning in discourse. The contributions apply new theoretical approaches and methods and focus on, but do not restrict themselves to, the Romance languages.

The totalising effect of consumerism, well-being and satisfaction is a discourse which may negate the value of struggle and mastery of complex subjects and a realization of personal potentiality. Published open access, Why Universities Should Seek Happiness and Contentment considers the consequences of a hedonistic and well-being centred model of student education as one of the goals of higher education and proposes an alternative goal for higher education. In a globalised consumer society where the anxiety for an identity leads to the fear of not reaching the standard, Paul Gibbs shows how anxiety can be harnessed to secure contentment with one’s own future without the fear of consumer-induced emptiness. He conceptualises higher education in a counter-valued way to the current dominant discourse of higher education institutions and educational policy while placing students at the centre of their own educational activity. In doing so, Gibbs proposes contentment as a guiding principle of higher education. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched.

The works of Serbian theologians of the second half of the 18th century are characterized by a confessional-polemic style, as their goal was to set the sacred doctrine and the organization of liturgical life. This polemic approach was also due to the unfortunate position of the Orthodox minorities within the Austrian Monarchy, exposed as they were to the pressure of the Catholic Church. Analysing the works of the leading Serbian theologians of the time (D. Novaković, J. Rajić, Z. Orfelin), the author explains how Serbian polemical theology was created and eventually found its own formal style.

Magris appears so often in the Spanish national press as to make it nearly impossible to be exhaustive. It is very difficult and complicated to talk about Claudio Magris’ presence in Spain and the presence of Spain in his journalistic articles within a limited space. Therefore, the current essay focuses on some of his most important contributions, starting with his first interventions and relationships with the main newspapers, magazines and writers, as well as the editions of volumes in Castilian and Catalan, and the awards he has won. Magris is a fundamental point of reference for the intellectual world in Spain, where he is never perceived as a foreigner, let alone a stranger.

Electronic Literacies is an insightful study of the challenges and contradictions that arise as culturally and linguistically diverse learners engage in new language and literacy practices in online environments. The role of the Internet in changing literacy and education has been a topic of much speculation, but very little concrete research. This book is one of the first attempts to document the role of the Internet and other new digital technologies in the development of language and literacy. Warschauer looks at how the nature of reading and writing is changing, and how those changes are being addressed in the classroom. His focus is on the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse learners who are at special risk of being marginalized from the information society. Based on a two-year ethnographic study of the uses of the Internet in four language and writing classrooms in the state of Hawai'i--a Hawaiian language class of Native Hawaiian students seeking to revitalize their language and culture; an ESL class of students from Pacific Island and Latin American countries; an ESL class of students from Asian countries; and an English composition class of working-class students from diverse ethnic backgrounds--the book includes data from interviews with students and teachers, classroom observations, and analysis of student texts. This rich ethnographic data is combined with theories from a broad range of disciplines to develop conclusions about the relationship of technology to language, literacy, education, and culture. Central to Warschauer's discussion and conclusions is how contradictions of language, culture, and class affect the impact of Internet-based education. While Hawai'i is a special place, the issues confronted here are similar in many ways to those that exist throughout the United States and many other countries: How to provide culturally and linguistically diverse students traditionally on the educational and technological margins with the literacies they need to fully participate in public, community, and economic life in the 21st century.

It is argued in most academic literature that Business Model (BM) is a general model for how any business runs or should be run, it is the "blueprint of the business". Conversely we argue that no business has just one BM, one model on which it runs all its business or intends to run its business. In other words the BM can be used for "as-is" and the "to-be" businesses. However our research, in contrast to the other BM frameworks, indicates that businesses have more BMs - both "as-is" and "to-be" BMs - the multi business model approach. This was already theoretically indicated by Markides and Charitou in 2004, and again in the Casadesus-Masanell and Ricart model of 2010, but sadly no one in the BM community has followed up on this since then. It could have made a breakthrough in our understanding of BMs, Business Model Innovation (BMI) and Strategic BMI. The Multi Business Model Innovation Approach addresses the concerns in the BM community and in BMI practice to just focus on the ideation and conceptualization of BMs. "BM canvassing", innovating BM building blocks or BM dimensions when carrying out BMI, so-called "blind business model innovation", is not sufficient to run and understand a business today. BMs and BMI must address all the different levels in a business. All BMs are objects to BMI and should be used to maximize the performance and sustainability of the business. The core business and all levels BMs, such as BM dimension components, BM dimensions, BM portfolio, and Business Model Ecosystem (BMES), should all be considered for BMI. The book addresses and documents a gap in BM research and the BM community - but also proposes a generic definition and language of a BM and BMI layers. The significance and importance of this work is related to significant and unexplored possibilities that BMI offers today, and can offer tomorrow. When we thoroughly understand all levels, dimensions and components of the business and its business models, and we are able to communicate, work and innovate with business models at all levels together, then a next step in BM and BMI research and practice can be taken. It is proposed that any BMs are related to seven dimensions- value proposition, user and/or customer, value chain functions (internal), competence, network, relations and value formulae. It is further proposed that seven different levels of a BMI from the most detailed level - the BM dimension component - to the BM dimension, BM, BM portfolio, business, and the vertical and horizontal business model ecosystem layer - and these can be objects to BMI. Conceptually, the Business Model Cube was formed using the seven dimensions which could be used both in a 2D and a 3D version.

Background Social determinants of health (SDOH) have increasingly entered health policy conversations as a growing body of researches, reveal the direct relationship between social determinants and health outcome. In fact, the recent literature is moving from the traditional model that focus on how health affects economic status, to a new view that economic status affects health. Objectives To investigate the principal conceptual frameworks for action on social determinants of health. Another aim is to contribute on the ongoing discourse on feasible measures which could be used to alert regions to inequalities in the distribution of health. Methodology, Italian data are used as a demonstration. Quadrant charts illustrate associations between how much regions spend on health and how effectively health system functions. The relevant inequality measures are used to rank health inequalities. Main results Frameworks have been presented to help communities, health professionals and others begin to better understand and address a variety of factors that affects health. Quadrant analysis technique shows the extent to which spending more on health, translates into better health outcomes, higher quality of care and improve access to care across the Italian regions, whilst also recognition the importance of major risk factors. Conclusions The social inequalities in health and what this means for how we understand and reduce them, as not to date been compressively examined empirically. There is an urgent need to expand our knowledge with comparable data on health determinants and more refined health outcomes. Furthermore, there is a need for feasible inequality measures in the health information systems. The measures used in this study, provide a step to inform and guide the uptake of equity-sensitive policies.

"Träumerisch haftet der Blik auf den schlanken Minarets der alten Dome der Christenheit, nur ungern nimmt man von ihnen Abschied, wenn nicht der heimliche Gedanke des Wiedersehens aufkäme, denn das Sprichwort sagt: Wer einmal Taksim Wasser getrunken hat, der kommt wieder!" Diese wehmütigen Gedanken notiert der Botaniker Carl Haussknecht am 13. Februar 1869 im damaligen Konstantinopel in sein – hier erstmals in Buchform veröffentlichtes – Tagebuch. Er befindet sich auf dem Rückweg nach Weimar, nachdem ihn zwei Reisen, oft abseits bekannter Wege, drei Jahre lang durch das Osmanische Reich bis nach Persien geführt haben. Ende 1868 nimmt er in Teheran sogar an einer Audienz beim Schah teil, der großes Interesse an Stationen seiner Reise und seinen kartografischen Aufnahmen zeigt. Neben der hauptsächlichen Aufgabe des Sammelns von Pflanzen hält Haussknecht aber nicht nur botanische und topografische Informationen fest. Ganz frei heraus notiert und kommentiert er seine vielseitigen Beobachtungen und berichtet über Begebenheiten und Begegnungen. Sein Urteil über die bereisten Regionen mit ihren Bräuchen und Bewohnern steht unter dem Eindruck seiner unmittelbaren Reiseerlebnisse. Und immer wieder wecken Landschaften und Feiertage Erinnerungen an die Heimat und Heimweh nach den Seinen.

Bringing together the latest research among various communities of practice (disciplinary and place based as well as thematically organised), this volume reflects upon the knowledge, experience and practice gained through taking a unique community of practice approach to fostering gender equality in the sectors of research and innovation, and higher education in Europe and beyond. Based on research funded by the European Union, it considers how inter-organisational collaboration can foster change for gender equality through sharing of experiences of Gender Equality Plan implementation and examining the role of measures such as change-monitoring systems. As such, it will appeal to social scientists with interests in organisational change, the sociology of work and gender equality.

This open access book seeks effective strategy to realize a rice Green Revolution in sub-Saharan Africa based on more than ten years of research team’s inquiries into determinants and consequences of new technology adoption in rice farming in seven countries in this region. Rigorous statistical analyses are carried out by using valuable household data of rice farmers. The book is actually sequel to the two earlier books on the same subject published by Springer and edited by K. Otsuka and D.F. Larson, An African Green Revolution published in 2013 and In Pursuit of an African Green Revolution in 2016. The main message of the first book was that rice is the most promising cereal crop in SSA because of the high transferability of Asian rice technology, whereas that of the second book was that rice cultivation training programs are effective in significantly increasing rice yield in SSA. This third book has wider coverage in terms of topics, study periods, and study sites. It continues to show the significant impacts of rice cultivation training on productivity and newly demonstrates the high sustainability of the productivity impact of the training and the existence of spillover effects from trainees to other farmers by using panel data. We newly assess the important role of mechanization in intensification of rice farming, high returns to large-scale irrigation schemes, and the critical role of rice millers in improving the quality of milled rice. Based on these studies, this book provides clear pathways toward full-fledged Green Revolution in rice farming in sub-Saharan Africa.

Light verb constructions are complex predicates consisting of a semantically reduced verb and an additional often phrasal element contributing the main predicational content. Although light verb constructions have been identified for various (genetically unrelated) languages, a comparative concept which allows identifying light verb constructions across languages is still missing. The present volume approaches this issue from the perspective of the analysis of individual languages. The basic research question underlying the formation of the volume is: Which properties manifest light verb constructions cross linguistically? The papers collected in the volume investigate a large range of languages from different languages families which includes Indo-European languages like Aheli, Italian, Scottish Gaelic and Old West Norse but also non-Indo-European languages such as Tibetan (Sino-Tibetan), Kina Rutul (Nakh-Dagestanian) and Gĩkũyũ (Bantu). The present volume fills a gap in the cross-linguistics discussion of light verb constructions and seeks to provide novel insights concerning a widely recognized type of complex predicate construction.

Over the next couple of years, the European Union will face a difficult stage, being confronted with the eventual transition to a monetary union. In the beginning of 1997, it is less clear than ever, if and when the European Monetary Union will eventually be realized, which countries will join in this process, and which countries will benefit from monetary union or are likely to loose out. Using econometric methods, the work attempts to assess the real economic effects of the European Monetary Union. In a first step, differences in labor and goods market adjustment processes between the fifteen member states of the European Union, the United States and Canada are studied in order to evaluate the short-term prospects of monetary union. Turning to the long-run effects, within a second step, convergence of living standards is assessed.