The Habsburgs rank among the most celebrated ruling dynasties in history. At one point, their territories stretched not only across Europe but across the globe, into Asia, Africa and the Americas. By virtue of their long pre-eminence, the family made an indelible mark on European affairs, shaping the course of international politics and diplomacy, and knitting together the diverse peoples of Central Europe.The story of the Habsburgs is theatrical and compelling, but it is also vita...

Anyone who has glimpsed the long, mountainous, island-studded Dalmatian coast would surely agree that its beauty is little short of divine. Croatia, quite simply, is blessed with some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet, and its history is equally captivating. A Traveller's History of Croatia offers tourists and travellers an inside look at how the country's cultural fusion of Mediterranean, Central European and Balkan influences has given it a tumultuous past.The audiobo...

What is the nature of time? Does it flow? Do the past and future exist? Drawing connections between historical and present-day questions, A Critical Introduction to the Metaphysics of Time provides an up-to-date guide to one of the most central and debated topics in contemporary metaphysics.Introducing the views and arguments of Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Newton and Leibniz, this accessible introduction covers the history of the philosophy of time fr...

Understanding Global Poverty introduces students to the study and analysis of poverty, helping them to understand why it is pervasive across human societies, and how it can be reduced through proven policy solutions.The book uses the capabilities and human development approach to foreground the human aspects of poverty, keeping the voices, experiences, and needs of the world’s poor central to the analysis. Starting with definitions and measurement, the book goes on to expl...

The economic and geopolitical implications of China's rise have been the subject of vast commentary. However, the institutional implications of China's transformative development under state capitalism have not been examined extensively and comprehensively. Regulating the Visible Hand? The Institutional Implications of Chinese State Capitalism examines the domestic and global consequences of Chinese state capitalism, focusing on the impact of state-owned enterprises on regulation ...

The sport of soccer has evolved immensely since its beginning around 2,000 years ago and is now considered the most popular sport in the world. The research related to the physical, psychological, and tactical aspects of the game has risen in conjunction with its fame.Elite Soccer Players: Maximizing Performance and Safety seeks to inform the reader with the most current research connected to optimizing physical performance and reducing the risk of injury of the elite soccer athlet...

Used across the public health field, this is the leading text in the area, focusing on the context, participants and processes of making health policy.

This open access book explores the agenda of education policies in the 21st century. In the first part of the book, education is handled from a historical and political framework, and the effects of the change of states and policies on education are examined. In the second part, the effects of changes in the economy on education policies and economies’ demands from educational institutions are examined. In the last section, current policies in the international education sector, which is g...

Developing countries commonly adopt reforms to improve their governments yet they usually fail to produce more functional and effective governments. Andrews argues that reforms often fail to make governments better because they are introduced as signals to gain short-term support. These signals introduce unrealistic best practices that do not fit developing country contexts and are not considered relevant by implementing agents. The result is a set of new forms that do not function. Howeve...

A call to reconnect the fields of urban planning and public health that offers a new decision-making framework for healthy city planning.In distressed urban neighborhoods where residential segregation concentrates poverty, liquor stores outnumber supermarkets, toxic sites are next to playgrounds, and more money is spent on prisons than schools, residents also suffer disproportionately from disease and premature death. Recognizing that city environments and the plan...

A new lens on development is changing the world of international aid. The overdue recognition that development in all sectors is an inherently political process is driving aid providers to try to learn how to think and act politically.Major donors are pursuing explicitly political goals alongside their traditional socioeconomic aims and introducing more politically informed methods throughout their work. Yet these changes face an array of external and internal obstacles, from heigh...

Since the 1970s and 1980s, community-based forestry has grown in popularity, based on the concept that local communities, when granted sufficient property rights over local forest commons, can organize autonomously and develop local institutions to regulate the use of natural resources and manage them sustainably. Over time, various forms of community-based forestry have evolved in different countries, but all have at their heart the notion of some level of participation by smallholders an...