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Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts on Agriculture in the New Europe: Post-Communist Transition and Accession to the European Union
by S. Serban ScrieciuThis book looks at agriculture and the environment, placed within the dynamic context of post-communist societal change and entry into the European Union (EU). Scrieciu explores developments in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries and argues for agriculture’s natural place in these societies. The history of these countries is significant in how it has shaped the institutions and influenced the outcomes. In many cases, during communism, agriculture was not considered a strategically. An ecological consciousness did not figure high on the agendas of authoritarian regimes. After 1990, some post-communist farm economies progressed slower than others, and environmental pressures mostly diminished with agricultural restructuring. In parts of CEE, increases in numbers of low-input small farms have resulted in some, though largely unintended, ecological benefits. A dual environmental challenge has nevertheless surfaced. On one hand, environmentally unsustainable practices have been attributed to some low-input farming. On the other hand, risks of farm over-intensification and resource overexploitation are on the rise. Also, environmental regulatory and institutional frameworks are not always effectively in place. EU membership is not creating the anticipated benefits for farm growth. There are a number of systemic structural barriers preventing many farmers from drawing on Common Agricultural Policy incentives and support. The presence of many vulnerable poor farms is clearly problematic, particularly economically. However, small-scale farms could be made more acceptable and profitable by ensuring EU policies acknowledge their value and by building institutions to support alternative farm growth strategies, aside from the traditional European model of individual corporate farm expansion. The voluntary uptake of grassroots rural cooperation and farm associations may represent such an alternative. Future European farm policy reforms need to reach the small and vulnerable, and better tackle issues of farm equity, poverty, and agricultural sustainability in the new Europe. This is a timely contribution as this type of "transition" has just begun. This book should be of use to students and researchers looking at agricultural and environmental economics, post-communist rural societal change, European integration and the Common Agricultural Policy.
Socioeconomic and Geopolitical Aspects of Global Climate Change: An Intersectorial Vision from the South of the South (The Latin American Studies Book Series)
by Leonidas Osvaldo GirardinThis book discusses climate change from an academic point of view centered on and from Latin America. Although climate change is a global issue, there has been a notable lack of input from the Latin American perspective, which means that many Latin American intellectuals often bring ideas, tools and potential solutions proposed by external, international research centers or organizations to the region. This book embraces a Latin American viewpoint to critically engage the problem and many of the concepts used in the analysis of climate change.The text emphasizes heterogeneity as an essential factor that cannot be absent in the analysis of how to understand and face the challenges posed by climate change. This heterogeneity refers not only to the magnitude of the impact that different regions will experience (including in their productive activities, ecosystems and social groups), but also to their contexts and capacities. Different countries' and regions' historical accumulated emissions—the primary cause of the current atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases—can inform current responsibilities, and their diverse productive structures will also contribute to different baselines in energy, agriculture and other sectors. Asymmetries in economic, technological and political capacities to face climate-related challenges will influence the social and economic costs of potential adaptation and mitigation measures.Using this conceptual approach, the book focuses on some of the main climate change-linked impacts expected in the region, such as effects on semi-arid ecosystems, and feasible, sector-specific adaptation measures. Furthermore, it contextualizes mitigation measures that appear on the international agenda (including the utilization of economic instruments to flexibilize the fulfillment of climate commitments) in the Latin American region.Socioeconomic and Geopolitical Aspects of Global Climate Change: An Intersectorial Vision from the South of the South offers socioeconomic and geopolitical analysis from the perspective of a region that is going to suffer impacts disproportionately greater than its historical and current responsibility in triggering this global environmental threat.
Socioeconomic Dynamics of the COVID-19 Crisis: Global, Regional, and Local Perspectives (Contributions to Economics)
by Nezameddin Faghih Amir ForouharfarThis book depicts and reveals the socioeconomic dynamics of the COVID-19 crisis, and its global, regional, and local perspectives. Explicitly interdisciplinary, this volume embraces a wide spectrum of topics across economics, business, public management, psychology, and public health. Written by global experts, each chapter offers a snapshot of an emerging aspect of the COVID-19 crisis for the benefit of academics and students, as well as the institutional, economic, social, and developmental policymakers and health practitioners on the ground.
Socioeconomic Effects of the National Flood Insurance Program
by James P. HowardThis Brief presents a benefit-cost analysis of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) as well as an evaluation of its cumulative socioeconomic effects. Created by Congress in 1968, the NFIP provides flood insurance protection to property owners, in return for local government commitment to sound floodplain management. Since 1994, the NFIP has included a Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program to provide local communities with support for flood mitigation. This book offers quantitative evidence of the net social benefit of the NFIP for the years 1996-2010, including an independent assessment of the consumer benefit. Second, it provides distributionally weighted analysis to show the socioeconomic effects of payments and claims. Finally, this Brief includes an analysis of the change in government revenue attributable to the NFIP and FMA programs. The models used in each component of the analysis are usable by others for extending and revising the analysis. Providing a comprehensive analysis of this increasingly important federal policy, this Brief will be of use to students of environmental economics and public policy as well as those interested in risk management in the era of climate change.
Socioeconomic Environmental Policies and Evaluations in Regional Science
by Hiroyuki Shibusawa Katsuhiro Sakurai Takeshi Mizunoya Susumu UchidaThis book is a volume of essays celebrating the life and work of Yoshiro Higano, professor of Environmental Policy, Doctoral Program in Sustainable Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan. Prof. Higano's research strongly focuses on the comprehensive evaluation of resources and research content for decision science and engineering, including simulation modeling for environmental quality control, the evaluation of environmental remediation technologies, integrated river (lake) basin management, and synthesized environmental policy. Yoshiro Higano is the past president of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) and the current president of the Japan Section of the RSAI (JSRSAI). He also served as executive secretary for the Pacific Regional Science Conference Organizations (PRSCO). This edited volume covers a wide range of regional science approaches, theory, policy, evaluation, modeling, simulation, and practice. It is a valuable reference work for researchers, scholars, policy makers, and students in the field of regional science. The volume celebrates Prof. Higano's contributions to the JSRSAI, PRSCO, and RSAI. Essay contributors include his former students and a wide array of regional scientists, each with a personal connection to Prof. Higano.
Socioeconomic Evaluation of Megaprojects: Dealing with uncertainties (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)
by Markku Lehtonen Pierre-Benoît Joly Luis AparicioThe governance and evaluation of ‘megaprojects’ – that is, large-scale, complex, high-stakes infrastructure projects usually commissioned by governments and delivered through partnerships between public and private organisations – is receiving increased attention. However, megaproject evaluation has hitherto largely adopted a linear-rationalist perspective to explain the frequent failure of such projects to meet the ‘iron triangle’ of performance criteria: delivering on time, within budget, and according to specifications. This approach recommends greater control and accountability to remedy megaproject ‘pathologies’. Drawing on empirical examples mainly from the transport sector and radioactive waste disposal, this book offers new perspectives to megaproject evaluation. Comprising contributions from leading experts in project evaluation and appraisal, this collection opens up new avenues by suggesting two ways of improving megaproject evaluation: 1) approaches that go beyond the dominant linearrationalist notion of policy processes, and emphasise instead the objective of opening up appraisal processes in order to enhance learning and reflexivity; and 2) approaches that extend evaluative criteria beyond the ‘iron triangle’, to cover the various socioeconomic impacts and preconditions for project success. This volume will be of great relevance to scholars and practitioners with an interest in megaprojects, energy and climate policy, radioactive waste management, urban design, and project planning and management.
Socioeconomic Fragmentation and Exclusion in Greece under the Crisis (New Perspectives on South-East Europe)
by Maria Zafiropoulou Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos Dimitris KatsikasThis volume uses new empirical evidence and analytical ideas to study phenomena of fragmentation and exclusion threatening stability and cohesion in Greek society in the aftermath of the crisis. The contributors argue that processes of fragmentation and exclusion provoked by the crisis can be observed on both a material and an ideational level. On a material level, rising levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality have produced new social security “outsiders”, while on an ideational level, a discursive-cultural shift is documented, which has led to new understandings and categorizations of new (and old) insiders and outsiders. Moreover, the volume attests to the aspirations, but also the limitations, of spontaneous civil society mobilization to address the social crisis. Finally, the volume offers a discussion of the political management of social fragmentation and exclusion in Greece both before and after the onset of the crisis. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of social policy and phenomena of poverty, social exclusion and economic inequality, civil society studies, and comparative political economy and politics.
The Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 on Eastern European Countries (Routledge Studies in the European Economy)
by Paweł Dykas Rafał WisłaThe year 2020 went down in economic history due to the dramatic and drastic changes in economic and social conditions that resulted from the outbreak of the global pandemic of COVID-19. This book offers a multi-level narrative about the pandemic, written from national and international perspectives, enabling the authors to construct several macro- and mega-scenarios. The book consists of six chapters. Four of them discuss the process of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Europe in 2020, i.e. the directions and dynamics of the spread and its socioeconomic consequences, and provide a comparative analysis of fiscal and monetary packages employed by Europe, with an emphasis on Eastern European countries. The remaining two chapters contain forecasts and scenarios. The fifth chapter, dedicated to forecasts, provides readers with a comprehensive description of possible consequences of any epidemic leading to severe social losses such as high percentages of infected and dead, limited interpersonal contacts as a result of lockdown, a lowered level of general individual and social well-being, as well as economic losses, for example a decline in production as a result of the collapse of aggregate demand and a reduction in the supply capacity of the economy, consequently slowing down the pace of capital accumulation. The sixth, final chapter describes possible scenarios of the spread of the pandemic in Poland and Ukraine, depending on measures taken by the governments of those countries. The Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 on Eastern European Countries is designed as a practical reference for scholars, researchers and policymakers.
Socioeconomic Impacts of High-Speed Rail Systems: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on High-Speed Rail Socioeconomic Impacts, University of Naples Federco II, Italy, 13–14 September 2022 (Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics)
by Francesca PagliaraThis book offers new insights into the wider socioeconomic impacts of high-speed rail (HSR). Over the past few decades, significant investments have been made in these systems around the world. The use of public funds for the construction of high-speed rail offers a range of benefits, such as time savings, increased comfort, and reduced traffic congestion, as well as broader economic benefits, including the advancement of less developed regions. These proceedings feature papers presented at the 2nd International Workshop on the Socioeconomic Impacts of High-Speed Rail. The focus is on HSR’s impacts on equity and integration, the land use system, productivity, the environment, the tourism industry, and cooperation and integration with other modes of transport. The book provides an overview of the current state of practice from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Consequently, it will be of interest to scholars of transportation economics and related fields, as well as transportation industry professionals.
Socioeconomic Impacts of High-Speed Rail Systems: Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on High-Speed Rail Socioeconomic Impacts, University of Naples Federico II, Italy, International Union of Railways (UIC), 12–13 September 2023 (Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics)
by Francesca PagliaraThis book offers new insights into the wider socio-economic impacts of high-speed rail (HSR). Over the past few decades, significant investments have been made in these systems around the world. The use of public funds for the construction of high-speed rail offers a range of benefits, such as time savings, increased comfort, and reduced traffic congestion, as well as broader economic benefits, including the advancement of less developed regions. These proceedings feature papers presented at the 3rd International Workshop on the Socioeconomic Impacts of High-Speed Rail. The focus is on HSR impacts on the environment, on the land use system, on investment, on the tourism industry, on inclusion and on cooperation vs integration with other transport modes. The book provides an overview of the current state of practice from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Consequently, it will be of interest to scholars of transportation economics and related fields, as well as transportation industry professionals.
Socioeconomic Shocks and Africa’s Development Agenda: Lessons and Policy Directions in a Post-COVID-19 Era (Routledge Studies in African Development)
by Evans Osabuohien Gbadebo Odularu Daniel Ufua Romanus OsabohienThis book investigates how African countries respond to socioeconomic shocks, drawing out lessons to help to inform future policy and development efforts. The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic affected all sectors of the economy, exposing substantial structural weaknesses and complexities in supply chains and logistics across the African continent. This book examines the disruptive impact of the pandemic across Africa. However, it also goes beyond the current crisis to investigate how socioeconomic pressures in general impact commodity prices, national budgeting processes, food, business, energy sectors, education, health, and sanitation. Overall, the book presents evidence-based solutions and policy recommendations to enable readers to improve resilience and responses to future crises. The insights provided by this book will be of interest to policymakers and development agencies, as well as to researchers of global development, politics, economics, business, and African studies.
The Socioeconomics of Nationalism in China: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge Studies in the Modern World Economy)
by C. Simon FanThis book analyzes Chinese nationalism from the perspective of social economics. It posits a conceptual framework in which national status is treated as a "luxury" while material consumption is considered as a "necessity" in people’s preferences, which implies that popular nationalism tends to increase with economic development. The book extensively uses the tools of game theory and behavioral economics to analyze inter-ethnical and international conflicts in historical and contemporary China. The author’s economic approach to the subject of nationalism brings fresh and critical insights into the Chinese historical events and relations with foreign countries. For example, it helps resolve the following puzzles: Why did most Chinese support an ethnic minority, the Manchus, to be their ruler after the collapse of the Ming dynasty? In the Boxer Rebellion, why did the Qing dynasty declare war against more than eight foreign powers when it knew well that any of the countries could defeat China easily? What are the fundamental causes of the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War? Who is responsible for the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade? This book attempts to answer the questions based on the theories of social economics and rational choice, which will interest those researching on nationalism, China studies, international relations, history and political economy.
Sociolinguistics and Business Talk: A Role-Playing Approach
by Yeonkwon JungThis book delivers essential skills in “spoken” professional communications, presenting theoretical and applied frameworks for business talk using English as a lingua franca. Adopting a role-playing approach mimicking various professional settings, it assesses the strength of the well-reasoned argument, the logical links that convince the audience of the coherence of the speaker’s argument and the necessary linguistics competencies. This book centers on a variety of situations that commonly take place in business organizations (such as relational talk; call center talk; job application talk) and addresses key skills such as conflict resolution and collaborative problem solving through communication, which are key for both students and practitioners. In addition it analyses spoken business discourse data with the four main sources of communicative competence: grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence in order to highlight how they are used in business speaking practices.
Sociological Debates on Gestational Surrogacy: Between Legitimation and International Abolition
by Daniela BandelliThis open access book discusses and analyses competing views and social implications of gestational surrogacy, which is making inroads as an option for parenthood as well as a work opportunity for women. It provides a rich account of transnational mobilizations for the abolition and regulation of surrogacy, with focus on United States, Italy and Mexico. The author critically assesses the core narratives of supporters and opponents of surrogacy, in order to understand this reproductive practice in light of some of the essential elements of contemporary societies, such as the “child at any cost” culture, individualism, technology and female emancipation. This book appeals to scholars, policy makers and all those who want to understand the controversial debate on this unprecedented method of family formation and life production.
Sociological Foundations of Computational Social Science (Translational Systems Sciences #40)
by Yoshimichi Sato Hiroki TakikawaThis book provides solid sociological foundations to computational social science (CSS). CSS is an emerging research field, and many books with those words in the title are on the market. However, CSS has not become mainstream in sociology, for which there are two reasons. First, CSS does not necessarily solve major research questions in sociology. Second, its sociological foundations are weak. These two reasons are interrelated—that is, CSS cannot solve major research questions because its sociological foundations are weak. Thus, even if it tries to solve those questions, its approaches seem to mainstream sociologists to miss the point. To resolve that shortcoming, this book fills the gap between CSS and sociology, shows that CSS can solve major research questions in sociology, and advances sociology by introducing to it theories and methodologies of CSS.
Sociological Paradigms and Human Resources: An African Context
by Ken N. KamocheThis title was first published in 2000: This book examines critically the theory and practice of Human Resource Management. It discusses some of the contemporary debates about the nature of Human Resource Management and attempts to offer conceptual clarity into this organizational phenomenon. The book effectively captures both the theoretical and practical issues in Human resource management - issues which are too often treated as separate. By examining Human Resource management with a variety of 'analytical lenses' Ken Kamoche's book takes the reader on an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating 'paradigmatic journey'.
Sociological Perspectives of Organic Agriculture: From Pioneer to Policy
by Georgina Holt Matthew ReedThis book takes a fresh look at understanding the dynamics of the organic agricultural sector in Europe, Australia, South America and the US and depicts organic agriculture as an engine of growth for the organic sector and examines the important roles played by producers, and other parts of the supply chain such as consumers and certification standards. The authors demonstrate that the complexity of organic agriculture is closely connected to nature, society and economy.
Sociology and Architectural Design (Social Science Frontiers)
by John ZeiselThis book, encouraging more effective collaboration between professional architects and social scientists, outlines how social science research can aid the design process, detailing how physical environment relates to behavior. With a foreword by Hugh F. Cline.
Sociology and Management Education: Engagements and Agendas (Routledge Focus on Management and Society)
by Manish ThakurWhile examining the intersections and engagements between sociology and management education in historical and contemporary terms, this slim volume outlines the agenda of a promising prospective engagement between the two. It specifically foregrounds the Indian experience without being indifferent to the global context that has shaped the unprecedented rise of business schools. Employing a perspective from the Global South, it contextualises the dominance of the US model of management curriculum and disciplinary practices in relation to wider geopolitics of knowledge production. Parenthetically, it presents a critical assessment of Indian scholarly contributions to the field of management studies. This book should be of interest to management educators, administrators, and sociologists besides the students and researchers in the broad area of organisation studies.
The Sociology and Politics of Development: A Theoretical Study (Routledge Library Editions: Development)
by Baidya Nath VarmaOriginally published in 1980, this work answers the crucial question of how social change should be guided in the developing countries. Professor Varma begins by posing the problems of the general scope of modernization and the general criteria used in the modernization process. He examines carefully some of the models that have been used for this purpose in the past, providing extensive summaries of the views on modernization of theorists in various social science disciplines, including sociology, politics, economics, and anthropology, and stresses the importance of these views in guiding policy decisions. The book concludes with a comparison of the development processes of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Japan and India.
The Sociology and Professionalization of Economics: British and American Economic Essays, Volume II (British and American Economic Essays)
by A. W. CoatsA.W. Coats has made unique contributions to the history of economic thought, economic methodology and the sociology of economics. This volume collects together, for the first time, a substantial part of his work on the sociology and professionalization of economics.
Sociology in Germany: A History (Sociology Transformed)
by Stephan MoebiusThis open access book traces the development of sociology in Germany from the late 19th century to the present day, providing a concise overview of the main actors, institutional processes, theories, methods, topics and controversies. Throughout the book, the author relates the discipline’s history to its historical, economic, political and cultural contexts. The book begins with sociology in the German Reich, the Weimar Republic, National Socialism and exile, before exploring sociology after 1945 as a ‘key discipline’ of the young Federal Republic of Germany, and reconstructing the periods from 1945 to 1968 and from 1968 to 1990. The final chapters are devoted to sociology in the German Democratic Republic and the period from 1990 to the present day. This work will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, and to a general readership interested in the history of Germany.
The Sociology of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Prospects
by Yos SantasombatSet within the context of ASEAN integration, this book considers how Capitalism from China interacts with the ASEAN Economic Community, considering the issue from a variety of sociological, cultural and economic perspectives. It examines some of the creative strategies – de-sinicization, re-sinicization and re-balancing – employed by local Chinese communities and ASEAN countries to cope with the pressures of Chinese capitalism. The book addresses the phenomenon of Chinese ethnic economic migration, particularly the social capital of being Chinese in South East Asia, as well as community building, the interplay between domestic politics and globalization, and the rise of Chinese tourism related entrepreneurship.
The Sociology of Contemporary Work: What It Is, and Why We Need It
by Marek KorczynskiThis book injects a burst of energy into the sociology of work, offering a perspective that is both innovative and deeply informed. Leading sociology of work scholar, Marek Korczynski, praises the discipline’s comprehensive approach to theory, its focus on uncovering power dynamics and its ability to reveal how social injustices often stem from workplace inequalities. Offering an accessible overview of the field, the book: · analyses both the social structures around work and the voice and agency of workers; · examines the role and impact of artificial intelligence at work; · provides a consistent thread on gig work, service work and knowledge work; · has an end-section in each chapter where students are asked to put their sociological imagination to work on relevant topics. This is an enlightening exploration of sociology of work, and of the evolving world of work itself.
Sociology of Economic Innovation (Routledge Advances in Sociology)
by Francesco RamellaThis book offers a sociological overview of the theories and research on economic innovation. Over the past few decades, the economics of innovation has given rise to a lively flow of studies, and innovation studies continues to develop as an interdisciplinary field of research. Sociology in general, and economic sociology in particular, have already made a significant contribution to innovation and continue to play a crucial role in this emerging field. This book presents an integrated sociological approach to the study of economic innovation. It explores the key theories and sociological research on innovation, as well as other contributions to the field of Innovation Studies from economists, geographers, and psychologists. Ramella argues that in order to understand the processes of innovation, it is necessary to look at the actors of innovation, at the relations that exist between them and at the sectoral and territorial contexts in which they operate. For students, this book includes international case studies throughout, as well as further study questions at the end of each chapter.