Open Access Books

“Sharing economy” and “collaborative economy” refer to a proliferation of initiatives, business models, digital platforms and forms of work that characterise contemporary life: from community-led initiatives and activist campaigns, to the impact of global sharing platforms in contexts such as network hospitality, transportation, etc. Sharing the common lens of ethnographic methods, this book presents in-depth examinations of collaborative economy phenomena. The book combines qualitative research and ethnographic methodology with a range of different collaborative economy case studies and topics across Europe. It uniquely offers a truly interdisciplinary approach. It emerges from a unique, long-term, multinational, cross-European collaboration between researchers from various disciplines (e.g., sociology, anthropology, geography, business studies, law, computing, information systems), career stages, and epistemological backgrounds, brought together by a shared research interest in the collaborative economy. This book is a further contribution to the in-depth qualitative understanding of the complexities of the collaborative economy phenomenon. These rich accounts contribute to the painting of a complex landscape that spans several countries and regions, and diverse political, cultural, and organisational backdrops. This book also offers important reflections on the role of ethnographic researchers, and on their stance and outlook, that are of paramount interest across the disciplines involved in collaborative economy research.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact

The environmental and ecosystem values of wetland are maintained through standardized methods, monitoring ecological ed ecosystems aspects like quality of water bodies, the presence or abundance of species and so on. However, protection initiatives sometimes prove to be insufficient in effectively reducing anthropogenic pressures like intensive agricultural areas, infrastructure, urban settlements and industrial sites. Their presence affects effectively and from a perceptive point of view the landscape of the wetlands. In order to reduce visibility fragmentations of wetlands landscapes, the introduction of the perception analysis in wetland conservation processes could guarantee the integral protection of unique value of wetlands landscape. The visibility analysis method is based on the visual perception: intervisibility maps are created using GIS tools the proposed methodology has been applied to the case study of the southeastern Sicilian wetlands, whose landscape value is highly threatened by human actions.

Luis I. Rodríguez tuvo a su cargo en momentos muy difíciles la Legación Mexicana en Francia, al finalizar la guerra civil española en 1939. Como jefe de misión atendió con un singular esmero tanto a los refugiados más desvalidos como a los políticos españoles más destacados. Dedicó incontables horas a dar seguimiento a los trámites migratorios y apoyo moral y material a cuantos se lo pedían, y documentó en el texto que hoy se publica sus afanes y trabajos.

À une époque où le statut légal des femmes indiquait leur position inférieure dans la société, John Stuart Mill, l’un des plus grands penseurs britanniques de son temps, s’éleva de manière répétée contre cette injustice. L’auteur du célèbre L’asservissement des femmes fit de l’égalité des sexes l’un des principaux enjeux de sa philosophie politique, au nom de la liberté individuelle et de l’égalité qu’il défendit toute sa vie. Avec le concours de Harriet Taylor, dont la participation à l’œuvr...

Estas investigaciones describen y analizan las dinámicas migratorias contemporáneas que están redefiniendo la geografía de la movilidad en América Latina. Las trayectorias de la población migrante nos muestran la articulación y consolidación de algunos corredores migratorios y la existencia de cambios en las trayectorias de tránsito y retorno: los flujos migratorios sur-norte se mantienen pero nuevas dinámicas sur-sur han proliferado en muchas regiones. Este libro plantea nuevos diálogos y aportes al campo de los estudios migratorios internacionales, desde una epistemología Sur-Sur.

Les « textes » qui nous entourent et qui circulent dans notre société moderne - livres, journaux, tableaux, diagrammes, cartes, etc. - sont des outils importants qui nous aident à réaliser des opérations mentales et cognitives de traitement de l'information : communiquer, représenter, mémoriser, comparer, classifier, etc. Ces outils de la pensée, dont l'utilité nous paraît évidente, ont toutefois noué et nouent encore des relations complexes et variées avec leurs usagers. Partant d'études de cas, nous tenterons d'explorer certains des trajets tortueux et labyrinthiques que l'homme et ces outils ont parcourus ensemble au cours de leur histoire.

Artificial Intelligence and Systems of the Earth is a book about the potential and capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for studying the Earth. It aims to serve as an eye-opener on new avenues of scientific research that can be enabled by AI/ML. This is not meant to be a ‘how to’ book but is written to answer the question ‘what if’. It explains how these tools are currently being applied, and the new opportunities they have opened. Through many examples and application ideas from outside the Earth Sciences, the book discusses some of the most prevalent types of AI in current use, the future of AI hardware, and how AI/ML bring about change. Features Provides accessible and compact coverage on the many uses AI in Earth Science. Covers AI, deep learning, and causal modeling concepts in an easy-to-understand language. Contains a chapter on generat ive AI and its specific strengths and challenges. Includes descriptions of computer hardware for AI and where it is headed. Offers a companion website with regularly updated content. This book is an excellent resource for researchers, academics, graduate, and senior undergraduate students in Earth Science and Environmental Science and Engineering, who wish to learn how AI and ML can benefit them, its potential applications, and capabilities. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

À la vision d’un Moyen Âge replié sur lui-même et fractionné en mondes clos, les travaux du XXXIIe Congrès de la Société des historiens médiévistes de l’enseignement supérieur public, réuni à l’Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale en mai 2001, opposent le tableau vivant d’une société animée par la vigueur de ses échanges culturels. Donner et recevoir : le système de l’échange est évidemment au cœur de toute vie sociale au Moyen Âge. Il s’agit ici d’un échange de type particulier, où prime la dimension symbolique : de là sans doute l’accent mis sur les reliques, objets cultuels et textes sacrés. Les essais réunis dans ce volume tentent pourtant d’appréhender l’échange culturel dans toutes ses composantes, des plus matérielles (les lieux, les acteurs, les supports) aux plus idéelles (Comment mesurer une influence ? Qu’est-ce qu’une aire de diffusion culturelle ?). Ce qui est en jeu ici, c’est bien l’existence d’un système de communication médiéval, qui associe étroitement la parole, le geste et l’écrit, et permet, grâce à l’intensification des transferts culturels, de voir se dessiner l’ébauche d’une culture européenne.

One of the first collections to focus on independent writing programs, A Field of Dreams offers a complex picture of the experience of the stand-alone. Included here are narratives of individual programs from a wide range of institutions, exploring such issues as what institutional issues led to their independence, how independence solved or created administrative problems, how it changed the culture of the writing program and faculty sense of purpose, success, or failure. Further chapters build larger ideas about the advantages and disadvantages of stand-alone status, covering labor issues, promotion/tenure issues, institutional politics, and others. A retrospective on the famous controversy at Minnesota is included, along with a look at the long-established independent programs at Harvard and Syracuse. Finally, the book considers disciplinary questions raised by the growth of stand-alone programs. Authors here respond with critique and reflection to ideas raised by other chapters—do current independent models inadvertently diminish the influence of rhetoric and composition scholarship? Do they tend to ignore the outward movement of literacy toward technology? Can they be structured to enhance interdisciplinary or writing-across-the-curriculum efforts? Can independent programs play a more influential role in the university than they do from the English department?

Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295805450 The essays in this volume analyze and compare what it means to be Hakka in a variety of sociocultural, political, geographical, and historical contexts including Malaysia, Hong Kong, Calcutta, Taiwan, and contemporary China.

This is the first comprehensive account of the International Labour Organization’s (100 year-long) history. The Centenary publication shows the ILO as a forum and an actor in the area of Global Social Policy. It opens a perspective on the manifold ways the ILO over a hundred years sought to structure debates on social policy across national borders and render practical contributions for the world of work and the area of social policy at large.

This pioneering ethnographic work on Western practitioners of Bon, or bonpos, presents the first in-depth study of the transition of the Yungdrung Bon religion, Tibet’s so-called "indigenous religion," to the West in the context of globalization. It shows how Bon, including Dzogchen meditation, is lived by its followers in the West and how a particular religion expands and integrates into new cultural settings as a consequence of globalization.

Parenting is a lifelong task and parents are always remaining as a parent. Parenting in the present situation faces many challenges which need to be reviewed and understood with profuse equanimity and alacrity. This book tries to consider the process of parenting in different conditions such as during COVID-19 lockdown, in the refugee camps, and in different cultural structures and economic conditions. Situations that families face due to changing conditions such as global changes which cause lifestyles, immigration patterns, social conflicts, and raising children with developmental disabilities have been discussed. Topics such as professional concern with child care and education, gender roles and caregiving, and father’s involvement in parenting, have been covered in different chapters of the book.

The paper focuses on the euphonic character of hydronyms, which is researched from two perspectives. The corpus comprises two sets of Czech river, pond, and spring names taken from the Ostravice river basin (the Moravian-Silesian Region), and the Morava river basin (the Zlín Region, the Olomouc Region, the South-Moravian Region), respectively. As to the methods, first, euphony values of the water names are computed on the grounds of a formula which is used in analysing poetry. Second, a questionnaire survey was carried out, in which secondary-school and university students were asked to order selected hydronyms according to their own perceptions of euphoniousness. The results of both investigations are compared, and several conclusions are drawn from their interplay.