Faith in the UK’s political system has reached new lows. Politicians and commentators are lining up to offer answers, but what if the problem goes beyond left and right, trust and bureaucracy? What if the system puts too much power in the hands of politicians in London and not enough in the hands of ordinary people?This important book addresses a key issue of our time: where should power and governance lie in our democracy? Simon Parker, a leading expert on public services and gove...

Urban Theory and the Urban Experience brings together classic and contemporary approaches to urban research in order to reveal the intellectual origins of urban studies and the often unacknowledged debt that empirical and theoretical perspectives on the city owe one another.From the foundations of modern urban theory in the work of Weber, Simmel, Benjamin and Lefebbvre to the writings of contemporary urban theorists such as David Harvey and Manuel Castells and the Los Angeles schoo...

Steve works in a dead end job and feels he has never fitted in anywhere. He has had a disturbing and dysfuntional past, which still haunts him in the form of his venemous mothers spirit. He has been dealing with his inner demons for too long and is now growing to fulfill his life's true purpose; he has a job, a calling from a higher power, that requires a blood letting. What Steve doesn't know is that, that higher power is being challenged. In order to win a war, you must first know your e...

The New Italian Republic charts the breakdown of the old party system and examines the changed political climate that has allowed Berlusconi to rise as Italy's new master and subsequently precipitated his rapid fall from power.

Traditionally, the study of ‘power in the city’ was confined to the institutions of urban government and the actors involved in contesting and making political decisions in and for metropolitan societies. Increasingly, however, attention has turned to the function of the city not only as a centre of urban governance but as a major economic, social, cultural and strategic force in its own right.Cities, Politics and Power combines this traditional concern with how the cities...

Europe might appear like a continent pulling itself apart. Ten years of economic and political crises have pitted North versus South, East versus West, citizens versus institutions. And yet, these years have also shown a hidden vitality of Europeans acting across borders, with civil society and social movements showing that alternatives to the status quo already exist.This book is at once a narrative of the experience of activism and a manifesto for change. Through analysing the wa...

A dilemma, a deal…a date!Charmer Nate Mackenzie is in the middle of a plus-one dilemma for his friend's wedding. Any of his recent dates would start dreaming of a solitaire for their own left hand. Worse, going stag will leave him at the mercy of a setup by his ever-hopeful sisters.Discovering that Saskia Bloom is doing online-dating research for a website, he strikes a deal. She'll take the research rather than a relationship and he'll get a fake date. There might be no shor...

Global studies is a fresh and dynamic discipline area that promises to reinvigorate undergraduate and postgraduate education in the social sciences and humanities. In the Australian context, the interdisciplinary pedagogy that defines global studies is gaining wider acceptance as a coherent and necessary approach to the study of global change. Through the Global Studies Consortium (GSC), this new discipline is forming around an impressive body of international scholars who define their exp...

She wants a new life. He just wants to live. Love is found in the most unlikely place…Budding psychiatrist Sophie Tindall, on the run from her predictable life, escapes to the small Australian town of Roseford.At just thirty-six-years-old, Orlando Piras is Roseford Aged Care’s youngest resident. Once worldly and daring, his now regimented existence makes him a hostile thorn in everyone’s side—especially when it comes to his new volunteer visitor—the annoyin...

Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970 when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in...

Compelling and accessible, this Very Short Introduction challenges the perception of borders as passive lines on a map, revealing them instead to be integral forces in the economic, social, political, and environmental processes that shape our lives. Highlighting the historical development and continued relevance of borders, Alexander Diener and Joshua Hagen offer a powerful counterpoint to the idea of an imminent borderless world, underscoring the impact borders have on a range o...

The history of modern Italy is characterized by recurrent cultural and political projects of modernity, rejuvenation, and regeneration; projects which often had their roots in a widespread dissatisfaction with social and political reality, and perceived moral corruption. The Risorgimento, the movement leading to Italian Unification in 1861, explicitly linked the quest for national unity to a process of moral regeneration and progress. Later forms of nationalism and the rise of fascism in t...