Economic Stress, Human Capital and Families in Asia

Economic Stress, Human Capital and Families in Asia

This book presents recent findings about the consequences and policy implications of economic stress for human capital development and family well-being in Asia. The scope of the chapters goes beyond the impact of current financial crisis to include the effect of economic deprivation families in Asia experience as a result of job loss, low-wage employment, and catastrophic natural calamities. The studies show how macro-level economic stress can filter down through households to affect individuals economic and socio-psychological well-being. The chapters reveal a wide spectrum of economic stresses experienced by families in Asia that is linked to poor human capital development, emotional distress, health problems, changing fertility patterns, more frequent geographic movement, and less supportive parenting behavior. The elderly, women, children, low-skilled workers are particularly vulnerable. The economic shocks in the past several decades have exposed the vulnerability of the family institution and the weaknesses in this regions social protection system that can lead to detrimental long-term effects on human capital development. This book is relevant for researchers and students in fields such as Family Studies, Globalization, Development, Social Problems, Social Stratification, Social Inequalities, Poverty and Welfare, Education, and Social Policies.

Economic Stress, Human Capital and Families in Asia

The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism

The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism

Renowned political economist Samir Amin, engaged in a unique lifelong effort both to narrate and affect the human condition on a global scale, brings his analysis up to the present-the world of 2013. The key events of our times-financial crisis, the emerging nations, globalization, financialization, political Islam, Euro-zone implosion-are related in a coherent, historically based, account. Changes in contemporary capitalism require an updating of definitions and analysis of social classes, class struggles, political parties, social movements and the ideological forms in which they express their modes of action in the transformation of societies. Amin meets this challenge and lays bare the reality of monopoly capitalism in its general, global form. Ultimately, Amin demonstrates that this system is not viable and that the implosion in progress is unavoidable. Whether humanity will rise to the challenge of building a more humane global order free of the contradictions of capital, however, is yet to be seen.

The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism

Time for Revolution

Time for Revolution

Written in prison two decades apart, these two essays reflect Antonio Negri’s abiding interest in the philosophy of time and resistance. The first essay traces the fracture lines that force capitalist society into perpetual crisis. The second, written immediately after the global bestseller, Empire, develops the two key concepts of empire and multitude.

Time for Revolution

Demenageries

Demenageries

Demenageries, Thinking (of) Animals after Derrida is a collection of essays on animality following Jacques Derridas work. The Western philosophical tradition separated animals from men by excluding the former from everything that was considered proper to man: laughing, suffering, mourning, and above all, thinking. The animal has traditionally been considered the absolute Other of humans. This radical otherness has served as the rationale for the domination, exploitation and slaughter of animals. What Derrida called la pense de lanimal (which means both thinking concerning the animal and animal thinking) may help us understand differently such apparently human features as language, thought and writing. It may also help us think anew about such highly philosophical concerns as differences, otherness, the end(s) of history and the world at large. Thanks to the ethical and epistemological crisis of Western humanism, animality has become an almost fashionable topic. However, Demenageries is the first collection to take Derridas thinking on animal thinking as a starting point, a way of reflecting not only on animals but starting from them, in order to address a variety of issues from a vast range of theoretical perspectives: philosophy, literature, cultural theory, anthropology, ethics, politics, religion, feminism, postcolonialism and, of course, posthumanism.

Demenageries

Global Cooperation Among G20 Countries

Global Cooperation Among G20 Countries

At the outbreak of the global financial crisis, 2008, the G20 was widely acknowledged as helping prevent an even more serious decline in the global economy. It helped to calm the panic in financial markets and articulate a set of possible policy options to restore global stability and growth. However, as the dual-track recovery set in, policy options for advanced economies and EMEs diverged. Within this context, this book will explore the scope for cooperation amongst the G20 and the diverging challenges and the intricate interconnectedness of policy options between advanced economies and the EMEs within the G20.

Global Cooperation Among G20 Countries

Resistance in the Age of Austerity

Resistance in the Age of Austerity

In November 1999 the first protests associated with the ‘anti-globalisation movement’ took place in Seattle, and came to be seen as the starting point for globalised resistance to neoliberal capitalism. However, the following years have seen little progress in formulating a coherent alternative to neoliberalism, a failure more poignant in the aftermath of the recent credit crisis.

Resistance in the Age of Austerity

The Global Crash

The Global Crash

The financial crisis hit the global economy unexpectedly from August 2007 producing consequences comparable to the ones experienced in the course of the 1930s. This book provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary account of the events leading to the financial crisis, its institutional causes and consequences, its economic characteristics and its socio-political implications.

The Global Crash

Compliance Management in Financial Industries

Compliance Management in Financial Industries

Since the peak of the world financial crisis in 2008, compliance management has gained more and more interest from practice and research. In particular the financial service industry is strongly regulated and has to follow specific laws, standards and guidelines. Considering the steadily increasing number of legal requirements in the design of information systems is a challenge to financial service providers. This book investigates the challenges of compliance management in financial industries and provides solutions for a compliant design of information models. From a business process perspective, an approach is presented that enables the automatic checking of business process models. From a supervisory reporting perspective a modeling technique is presented that allows for modeling regulatory data warehouse requirements as well as its analysis. Besides these two perspectives the author provides insights into the perceived relationship of Information Systems and Law.

Compliance Management in Financial Industries

Decoding the New Mortgage Market

Decoding the New Mortgage Market

The housing market is in turmoil, but if theres a silver lining, its the fact that purchase prices are at historic lows. Sure, there are still plenty of predatory lenders waiting to exploit the nave potential buyer, but those who do their homework will be rewarded with a fair price and manageable mortgage terms. Decoding the New Mortgage Market is a map to finding the best and most realistic mortgage deals while navigating past potential obstacles and traps. Filled with money-saving advice, this practical guide will help prospective buyers understand: How new lending and underwriting rules affect todays homebuyer Different loan types and lending institutions Credit issues and other qualifying factors Creative down-payment solutions How to reduce closing costs and other fees Because lenders and buyers alike have gotten burned in the mortgage crisis, finding and qualifying for a manageable loan may now be more difficult. Readers will find that Decoding the New Mortgage Market makes the search both easier and more fruitful, and that their dreams of home ownership are still within their reach.

Decoding the New Mortgage Market

Crises of Global Economy and the Future of Capitalism

Crises of Global Economy and the Future of Capitalism

Recent events in the global financial markets and macro economies have served as a strong reminder for a need of a coherent theory of capitalist crisis and analysis. This book helps to fill the gap with well-grounded alternative articulations of the forces which move today’s economic dynamics, how they interact and how ideas of foundational figures in economic theory can be used to make sense of the current predicament. The book presents a comprehensive collection of reflections on the origins, dynamics and implications of the interlinked crises of the U.S. and global economies.

Crises of Global Economy and the Future of Capitalism

Making Competition Work in Electricity

Making Competition Work in Electricity

An expert’s perspective on how competition can make this industry work. There has never been a coherent plan to restructure the electricity industry in the US???until now. Power expert Sally Hunt gets down to the critical lessons learned from the California power crisis and other deregulated markets, in which competition has been introduced properly and successfully.

Making Competition Work in Electricity

The Price of Paradise

The Price of Paradise

Many American communities, especially the working and middle class, are facing chronic problems: fiscal stress, urban decline, environmental sprawl, failing schools, mass incarceration, political isolation, disproportionate foreclosures, and severe public health risks. In The Price of Paradise, David Dante Troutt argues that it is a lack of what he calls regional equity in our local decision making that has led to this looming crisis now facing so many cities and local governments. Unless we adopt policies that take into consideration all class levels, he argues, the underlying inequity affecting poor and middle class communities will permanently limit opportunity for the next generations of Americans. Arguing that there are structural flaws in the American dream, Troutt explores the role that place plays in our thinking and how we have organized our communities to create or deny opportunity. Through a careful presentation of this crisis at the national level and also through on-the-ground observation in communities like Newark, Detroit, Houston, Oakland, and New York City that all face similar hardships, he makes the case that Americas tendency to separate into enclaves in urban areas or to sprawl off on ones own in suburbs gravely undermines the American dream. Troutt shows that the tendency to separate also has maintained racial segregation in our cities and towns, itself cementing many barriers for advancement. A profound conversation about America at the crossroads, The Price of Paradise is a multilayered exploration of the legal, economic, and cultural forces that contribute to the squeeze on the middle class, the hidden dangers of growing income and wealth inequality, and environmentally unsustainable growth and consumption patterns. David Dante Troutt is Professor of Law and Justice John J. Francis Scholar at the Rutgers University-Newark Law School. He also serves as Director of the Center on Law in Metropolitan Equity at Rutgers Law School.Troutt is a columnist, novelist, and the author of several works of nonfiction, most recently After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina.

The Price of Paradise

The Nuclear Environmentalist

The Nuclear Environmentalist

This book explains how society will face an energy crisis in the coming decades owing to increasing scarcity of fossil fuels and climate change impacts. It carefully explores this coming crisis and concisely examines all of the major technologies related to energy production (fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear) and their impacts on our society and environment. The author argues that it is wrong to pit alternatives to fossil fuels against each other and proposes that nuclear energy, although by no means free of problems, can be a viable source of reliable and carbon-free electricity. He concludes by calling for a diversified and rational mix of electricity generation in order to mitigate the effects of the energy crisis. Throughout, the book is spiced with science, history, and anecdotes in a way that ensures rewarding reading without loss of rigor.

The Nuclear Environmentalist

A History of Army Aviation 1950-1962

A History of Army Aviation 1950-1962

U.S. Army aviation expanded dramatically in both size and breadth of activities after its inception in 1942, but much of its post-World War II history, particularly after the establishment of the Air Force as an independent service by the national Security Act of 1947, has been relatively neglected. Despite a certain amount of jockeying for position by both services, particularly in the early years after their separation, the Army was able to carve out a clear transport and operational combat role for its own air arm. ‘A History of Army Aviation 19501962′ examines the development of the Armys air wing, especially for air support of ground troops, both in terms of organization and in relation to the ongoing friction with the Air Force. After describing the rapid expansion of purely Army air power after 1950 and the accompanying expansion of aviation training, the book delves into the reorganization of aviation activities within a Directorate of Army Aviation. It also provides a valuable account of the successful development of aircraft armament, perhaps the most significant advance of this period. In particular, intensive experimentation at the Army Aviation School led to several practical weapons systems and helped to prove that weapons could be fired from rotary aircraft. This arming of the helicopter was to have a profound effect on both Army organization and combat doctrine, culminating in official approval of the armed helicopter by the Department of the Army in 1960. ‘A History of Army Aviation 19501962′ also explores the development of new aircraft between 1955 and 1962, including the UH-1 medical evacuation, transport, and gunship helicopter and the HC-1 cargo copter. In addition, the book discusses the Berlin Crisis of 1961 as an impetus for immediate and unexpected expansion of army aviation, quickly followed by the beginnings of intervention in Vietnam by the end of 1962.

A History of Army Aviation 1950-1962

Means Without End

Means Without End

An essential reevaluation of the proper role of politics in contemporary life. In this critical rethinking of the categories of politics within a new sociopolitical and historical context, the distinguished political philosopher Giorgio Agamben builds on his previous work to address the status and nature of politics itself. Bringing politics face-to-face with its own failures of consciousness and consequence, Agamben frames his analysis in terms of clear contemporary relevance. He proposes, in his characteristically allusive and intriguing way, a politics of gesturea politics of means without end.Among the topics Agamben takes up are the ‘properly’ political paradigms of experience, as well as those generally not viewed as political. He begins by elaborating work on biopower begun by Foucault, returning the natural life of humans to the center of the polis and considering it as the very basis for politics. He then considers subjects such as the state of exception (the temporary suspension of the juridical order); the concentration camp (a zone of indifference between public and private and, at the same time, the secret matrix of the political space in which we live); the refugee, who, breaking the bond between the human and the citizen, moves from marginal status to the center of the crisis of the modern nation-state; and the sphere of pure means or gestures (those gestures that, remaining nothing more than means, liberate themselves from any relation to ends) as the proper sphere of politics. Attentive to the urgent demands of the political moment, as well as to the bankruptcy of political discourse, Agambens work brings politics back to life, and life back to politics.Giorgio Agamben teaches philosophy at the Collge International de Philosophie in Paris and at the University of Macerata in Italy. He is the author of Language and Death (1991), Stanzas (1992), and The Coming Community (1993), all published by the University of Minnesota Press.

Means Without End