Focusing on twenty-first century Western films, including all major releases since the turn of the century, the essays in this volume cover a broad range of aesthetic and thematic aspects explored in these films, including gender and race. As diverse contributors focus on the individual subgenres of the traditional Western (the gunfighter, the Cavalry vs. Native American conflict, the role of women in Westerns, etc.), they share an understanding of the twenty-first century Western may be u...

The first collection of its kind to examine tourism as a complicated and vital force in southern history, culture, and economicsAnyone who has seen Rock City, wandered the grounds of Graceland, hiked in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, or watched the mermaids swim at Weeki Wachee knows the southern United States offers visitors a rich variety of scenic, cultural, and leisure activities. Tourism has been, and is still, one of the most powerful economic ...

Now beyond its eleventh printing and translated into twelve languages, Michael Porter’s The Competitive Advantage of Nations has changed completely our conception of how prosperity is created and sustained in the modern global economy. Porter’s groundbreaking study of international competitiveness has shaped national policy in countries around the world. It has also transformed thinking and action in states, cities, companies, and even entire regions such as Central Americ...

"Hidalgo has made a bold attempt to synthesize a large body of cutting-edge work into a readable, slender volume. This is the future of growth theory." -- Financial TimesWhat is economic growth? And why, historically, has it occurred in only a few places? Previous efforts to answer these questions have focused on institutions, geography, finances, and psychology. But according to MIT's antidisciplinarian Cér Hidalgo, understanding the nature of economic growth demands tr...

An Oprah.com “Must-Read Book”Award-winning journalist Jeanne Marie Laskas reveals “enlightening, entertaining, and often poignant”* profiles of America's working class—the forgotten men and women who make our country run.Take the men of Hopedale Mining company in Cadiz, Ohio. Laskas spent several weeks with them, both below and above ground, and by the end, you will know not only about their work, but about Pap and his dying mom, Smitty and...

In the last twenty years, policy makers in Australia have been forced to acknowledge that it is not possible to perpetually supply more water at a low cost. Consequently, the country has begun to focus on water resource management through legislative and institutional change attempting to allocate water in a more economically efficient and socially and environmentally acceptable manner.This book provides insight into the challenges of institutional change, as well as valuable lesso...

Volume 11 of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture examines the economic culture of the South by pairing two categories that account for the ways many southerners have made their living. In the antebellum period, the wealth of southern whites came largely from agriculture that relied on the forced labor of enslaved blacks. After Reconstruction, the South became attractive to new industries lured by the region’s ongoing commitment to low-wage labor and management-friendly econom...

For decades now we have wasted and mismanaged the world?s water supplies. Today, 27 countries are short of water, a quarter of the world?s population has no safe water, 46 per cent have no proper sanitation and each year four million children die of water-borne diseases. As most of the world?s major river systems cross several national boundaries, the scope disputes and the threat to international security is becoming more and more real.In The Last Oasis, Sandra Postel examines the...

This book is an outcome from the International Expo 'Water and Sustainable Development' held in Zaragoza (Spain) in 2008. Support from the Spanish Ministry of Environment, Caja Rioja, Government of Aragon, and the World Bank is acknowledged.'Few resources will play a more important role in shaping our economic future, or face more daunting challenges, than water. This internationally acclaimed team of experts has produced a first-rate volume that is full of intriguing, practical id...

The end of bureaucracy has been anticipated many times throughout the history of management science, as well as in modern social and political theory. This book sets out to show why bureaucracy persists and what values it embodies and upholds. Thus the book seeks to show how and why bureaucratic forms of organization have played, and continue to play, a vital and productive role in ordering our political, social, economic, and cultural existence. The book also describes and analyzes the im...

Stories, whether they are fact or fiction, popular or not, are a proven method of pedagogy. In the age of media convergence and with the advancement of technology, stories have morphed into new forms; however, their core purpose remains the same, which is to pass on knowledge and information. The internet, with its inherent interactivity, and story, with its inherent capacity to engage, can lead to innovative and transformative learning experiences in media-rich environments. This book foc...

Explores the Latin American economy and management through the study of Japanese companies in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Based on detailed case studies, this volume offers a bird's eye view of foreign investments in Latin America.