This book questions the belief that patronage explains poor governance and weak organizations. Its focus is on high-level political appointees in the Philippines, but its implications for development processes and policy are far-reaching. Patronage stimulates the emergence of democracy and welfare, and constitutes formal organizations. So intimately connected is it with the health of democracy and effective organizations that attempts to eradicate patronage only harm social, organizational...

This book considers the tensions and complementarities between two different attitudes towards social relationships - on the one hand, the attitude aspired to in the West, which emphasises individualism, institutional probity, and the rule of law, and which regards social relationships as ideals or absolutes; and, on the other hand, the attitude often found in Asia, where loyalties based on kinship, local networks, and places of origin are vitally important, and where social relationships,...

Development Geography is an informative and vibrant introductory level text, with a wealth of contrasting case-studies and illustrations. Written to stimulate critical thought and discussion about development, it does not assume any clear-cut distinction between 'developed' and 'developing' parts of the world. Case-studies highlight the problems and possible solutions at local, national and international scales. These include:* food production in Senegal* Disney in C...

This book considers how small businesses stir up changes in social relationships and what these changes mean for wider society. From this emerges a challenging and provocative discussion on the problems facing both the developing and developed worlds. Development, it argues, is written into social relationships and growth follows attempts to avoid the market’s degenerative effects. What this discussion means for development practice, and for thought in the social sciences more generally, i...

How can a supposedly all-powerful and all-loving God permit evil and suffering on a grand scale?The question has assailed people across cultures at least as far back as the biblical Book of Job. To sceptics, it forms clinching evidence that all talk of providence is childish -- or even a dangerous delusion. Writing clearly and concisely but avoiding simplistic answers, Rupert Shortt argues that belief in a divine Creator is intellectually robust, despite a...

A call for Christianity to recover its confidenceThe mainstream Churches are faltering - or even at risk of dying out - in their Western and Middle Eastern heartlands. Surveys confirm that only a minority of people in a country such as Britain now claim Christian allegiance. The pattern is being matched in neighbouring societies. At the same time many opinion formers preach secularist ideology with a self-confidence shading into dogmatism. Others, unsure of their m...

In this pioneering book Rupert Sheldrake shows how science helps validate seven practices on which all religions are built, and which are part of our common human heritage:· Meditation· Gratitude· Connecting with nature· Relating to plants· Rituals· Singing and chanting· Pilgrimage and holy places.The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious ...

In this pioneering book Rupert Sheldrake shows how science helps validate seven practices on which all religions are built, and which are part of our common human heritage:· Meditation· Gratitude· Connecting with nature· Relating to plants· Rituals· Singing and chanting· Pilgrimage and holy places.The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious ...

As humanity faces the urgency of climate crisis, it is hubris versus hope when Kate Larkin joins a secret project to save the world by resurrecting a ghost species, the Neanderthals. But when the child Eve is born, Kate's role as scientist, and mother, forces her to ask what really makes us, and Eve, human?In an intimate portrayal of high-concept big ideas, can we engineer ourselves out of a problem of our own making?Set against the backdrop of rapidly appr...

This study casts doubt on the classic model of bureaucracy and its relevance to developing areas. In particular, Hodder challenges the Weberian distinction between the role of emotion and a modern bureaucracy's impersonal and rational qualities. He suggests that bureaucracies function differently, and offers a different perspective. The focus is the Philippines, but Hodder's conclusions are applicable to other developing areas.Two main themes are discussed. The first explores the c...

C.R.O.P.: Covert Rural Observation Posts are places where men like Danny 'Badger' Baxter hide for endless, motionless hours, secretly recording criminal or terrorist activity.But now Badger has a bigger job than photographing dissident Republicans in muddy Ulster fields or Islamic extremists on rainswept Yorkshire moors.I.E.D.: Improvised Explosive Devices are the roadside bombs which account for 80% of British casualties in Iraq and Afghani...

Former SAS legend Chris Ryan brings you his sixteenth novel and it is full of all his trademark action, thrills and inside knowledge.Invalided out of the SAS Chet Freeman makes his living in high-end security, on a temporary contract for an American corporation called the Grosvenor Group. He catches a young woman, a peace campaigner, eavesdropping on a meeting the Group is holding with the British Prime Minister. The Group's interests include arms manufacture, an...