The Social Dynamics of Open Data is a collection of peer reviewed papers presented at the 2nd Open Data Research Symposium (ODRS) held in Madrid, Spain, on 5 October 2016. Research is critical to developing a more rigorous and fine-combed analysis not only of why open data is valuable, but how it is valuable and under what specific conditions. The objective of the Open Data Research Symposium a…
Recent years have witnessed considerable speculation about the potential of open data to bring about wide-scale transformation. The bulk of existing evidence about the impact of open data, however, focuses on high-income countries. Much less is known about open data’s role and value in low- and middle-income countries, and more generally about its possible contributions to economic and social…
Universities are increasingly expected to be at the heart of networked structures contributing to society in meaningful and measurable ways through research, the teaching and development of experts, and knowledge innovation. While there is nothing new in universities’ links with industry, what is recent is their role as territorial actors. It is government policy in many countries that univer…
"Through algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI), objects and digital services now demonstrate new skills they did not have before, right up to replacing human activity through pre-programming or by making their own decisions. As part of the internet of things, AI applications are already widely used today, for example in language processing, image recognition and the tracking and processin…
Amidst growing dissatisfaction with the state of government performance and an erosion of trust in our political class, Competing for Influence asks: what sort of public service do we want in Australia? Drawing on his experience in both the public and private sectors – and citing academic research across the fields of public sector management, industrial organisation, and corporate strategy �…
This book traces the development of e-government and its applications across Europe, exploring the effects of information and communication technology (ICTs) upon political action and processes. Explores a range of concepts and topics underpinning e-government in Europe: the degree to which e-government translates into genuine reform of government and public administration the dual role of the …
Public service cutbacks have increased reliance on consultants. But new legislation and rules governing the procurement of services from consultants are scattered over different legislative instruments. The first edition of this book attracted a record number of online hits. Busy public sector managers now have available to them an updated version that integrates an easy-to-follow, step-by-step…
This collection of essays had its origins in a one-day workshop held in August 2015 at The Australian National University. Jointly convened by Dr John Butcher (ANZSOG) and Professor David Gilchrist (Curtin Not-for-profit Initiative) the purpose of the workshop was to bring together academic researchers, policy practitioners and thought leaders to address a variety of emerging issues facing poli…
This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book examines how China can increase the share of natural gas in its energy system. China’s energy strategy has global ramifications and impact, and central to this strategy is the country’s transition from coal to gas. The book presents the culmination of a two-year collaboration between the Development Research Center of the State C…
This book examines the current state of elective placements of medical undergraduate students in developing countries and their impact on health care education at home. Drawing from a recent case study of volunteer deployment in Uganda, the authors provide an in-depth evaluation of the impacts on the students themselves and the learning outcomes associated with placements in low resource settin…
The objective of this book is to broadly illustrate the key aspects of water governance, mapping the spectrum of decision-making from techno-centric and eco-centric approaches, to hybrid concepts and people-centric approaches. Topics covered include the challenges for water-governance models, the polycentric model, the integration challenge, water in the decision-making hierarchy, and the rise …
This book investigates what international placements of healthcare employees in low resource settings add to the UK workforce and the efficacy of the its national health system. The authors present empirical data collected from a volunteer deployment project in Uganda focused on reducing maternal and new-born mortality and discuss the learning and experiential outcomes for UK health care profes…
In this book, Nika Gilauri reveals his formulas for government reform and economic recovery, including how to fight against corruption, reform fiscal policy and tax systems, privatize state-owned enterprises, build a welfare system for those most in need, create a competitive education and healthcare system, and streamline procurement. All formulas are corroborated by practical experience and e…
This volume presents an Empirical Model of Global Climate developed by the authors and uses that model to show that global warming will likely remain below 2ºC, relative to preindustrial, throughout this century provided: a) both the unconditional and conditional Paris INDC commitments are followed; b) the emission reductions needed to achieve the Paris INDCs are carried forward to 2060 and be…
This book explores the impact that professional volunteers have on the low resource countries they choose to spend time in. Whilst individual volunteering may be of immediate benefit to individual patients, this intervention may have detrimental effects on local health systems; distorting labour markets, accentuating dependencies and creating opportunities for corruption. Improved volunteer dep…
The European Union is now a key player in making lifelong learning and adult education policy: this is the first book to explore a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives researchers can use to investigate its role. Readership: Educational Researchers and their students
A system reset seems imminent. The world's financial system will need to find a new anchor before the year 2020. Since the beginning of the credit crisis, the US realized the dollar will lose its role as the world's reserve currency, and has been planning for a monetary reset. According to Willem Middelkoop, this reset will be designed to keep the US in the driver's seat, allowing the new monet…
Accountability, good government and public trust are intricately linked. Supreme Audit Institutions fulfil an exceptional role in the public domain, checking if governments spend their money properly. They are like 'watchdogs' for citizens and parliaments with the purpose of auditing public expenditure and examining the effectiveness of policies. They aim to strengthen the trustworthiness of go…
Governments have known since the 1960s that smoking results in irreversible health damage. This open access book examines why governments have done so little to combat this when they have been aware of the problem and its solutions for decades. What are the strategies and decisions that make a difference, given that policy environments are often not conducive to change? Taking the Netherlands a…
The focus of this study is the idea and social practice of law in thePacific. The notion that the rule of law embodies or guarantees all theessential requirements for a perfectly just society is, unfortunately,extravagant and naïve. That said, it is certainly the case that the rule oflaw remains an essential human good whose usefulness the world hasyet to outgrow.
After violent protests all over the country had forced President Suharto to step down in 1998, Indonesia successfully made the transition from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In this book Indonesian scholars attached to Islamic universities and Dutch researchers investigate what happened since and what the consequences are of the growing influence of orthodoxy and radicalism, which alrea…
Over the past decade the Middle East has undergone huge geopolitical shifts, including widespread war and violence, the collapse of numerous regimes, a changing American role, a restored Russian presence, and the emergence of ISIS. In this book Graham Fuller addresses the character of these shifts and how they will shape the future of this tumultuous region as well as the role of major outside …
This open access book attends to the co-creation of digital public services for ageing societies. Increasingly public services are provided in digital form; their uptake however remains well below expectations. In particular, amongst older adults the need for public services is high, while at the same time the uptake of digital services is lower than the population average. One of the reasons i…
Reports on a new generation of Internet controls that establish a new normative terrain in which surveillance and censorship are routine.Internet filtering, censorship of Web content, and online surveillance are increasing in scale, scope, and sophistication around the world, in democratic countries as well as in authoritarian states. The first generation of Internet controls consisted largely …
"Noam Chomsky visited India in 1996 and 2001 and spoke on a wide range of subjects, from democracy and corporate propaganda to the nature of the world order and the role of intellectuals in society. He captivated audiences with his lucid challenge of dominant political analyses, the engaging style of his talks, and his commitment to social equality as well as individual freedom. Chomsky’s ear…
Politics and government; Social conditions; Papua new guinea
This book looks at the major policy challenges facing developing Asia and how the region sustains rapid economic growth to reduce multidimensional poverty through socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable measures. Asia is facing many challenges arising from population growth, rapid urbanization, provision of services, climate change and the need to redress declining growth after the g…
This open access book utilizes new data to thoroughly analyze the main factors currently shaping the African housing market. Some of these factors include the supply and demand for housing finance, land tenure security issues, construction cost conundrum, infrastructure provision, and low-cost housing alternatives. Through detailed analysis, the authors investigate the political economy surroun…
This book investigates European citizenship after Brexit, in light of the functionalist theory of citizenship. No matter its shape, Brexit will impact significantly on what has been labelled as one of the major achievements of EU integration: Citizenship of the Union. For the first time an automatic and collective lapse of status is observed. It is a form of involuntary loss of citizenship en m…
This open access book reframes sustainable energy transitions as being a matter of resolving accountability crises. It demonstrates how the empirical study of several practices of legitimation can analytically deconstruct energy transitions, and presents a typology of these practices to help determine whether energy transitions contribute to sustainability. The real-world challenge of climat…
This open access book explores one of the most fiercely debated issues in China: if and how China will surpass the middle income trap that has plagued many developing countries for years. This book gives readers a clear picture of China today and acts as a reference for other developing countries. China is facing many setbacks and experiencing an economic slowdown in recent years due to some…
This open-access book addresses latest Sino-German results of the joint research efforts within Major Water Program of the Chinese Government supported by German research funding. The Major Water Program aims at the restoration of polluted water environments and sustainable management of water resources in China. The joint BMBF-CLIENT project SINOWATER deals with three most significant and stro…
In this open access volume, the editors identify the trajectories and patterns displayed by education systems and investigate the causes of change from a global and historical perspective. The contributors argue that the emergence and development of education systems can be traced back to inherent national factors, as well as to the international diffusion of ideas. The research prese…
This open access book explores how digital tools and social media technologies can contribute to better participation and involvement of EU citizens in European politics. By analyzing selected representative e-participation projects at the local, national and European governmental levels, it identifies the preconditions, best practices and shortcomings of e-participation practices in connection…
Who thought of Europe as a community before its economic integration in 1957? Dina Gusejnova illustrates how a supranational European mentality was forged from depleted imperial identities. In the revolutions of 1917 to 1920, the power of the Hohenzollern, Habsburg and Romanoff dynasties over their subjects expired. Even though Germany lost its credit as a world power twice in that century, in …
This volume presents the diverse approaches and achievements of scholars of Asian cultures and languages in today’s global academy. Recent vast increases in student numbers and ethnic diversity have created pressing challenges for a higher education which engages with contemporary concerns for Asian societies as well as for Asian students involved in Western education. This collection of scho…
Europe remains divided between east and west, with differences caused and worsened by uneven economic and political development. Amid these divisions, the environment has become a key battleground. The condition and sustainability of environmental resources are interlinked with systems of governance and power, from local to EU levels. Key challenges in the eastern European region today include …
"Imperial Genus begins with the turn to world culture and ideas of the generally human in Japan’s cultural policy in Korea in 1919. How were concepts of the human’s genus‑being operative in the discourses of the Japanese empire? How did they inform the imagination and representation of modernity in colonial Korea? Travis Workman delves into these questions through texts in philosophy, lit…
When it comes to policymaking, public servants have traditionally learned 'on the job', with practical experience and tacit knowledge valued over theory-based learning and academic analysis. Yet increasing numbers of public servants are undertaking policy training through postgraduate qualifications and/or through short courses in policy training. Learning Policy, Doing Policy explores how poli…
In this open access volume, the editors identify the trajectories and patterns displayed by education systems and investigate the causes of change from a global and historical perspective. The contributors argue that the emergence and development of education systems can be traced back to inherent national factors, as well as to the international diffusion of ideas. The research prese…
This open access book captures and elaborates on the skill of storytelling as one of the distinct leadership features of Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the President of the People’s Republic of China. It gathers the stories included in Xi’s speeches on various occasions, where they conveyed the essence of China’s history and culture, its reform and d…
Food price volatility is one of the major challenges facing the global agricultural system today. This was most vividly illustrated during the global food crisis of 2007–9 when price spikes occurred for key staple food commodities—such as wheat, rice, maize, and soybeans. Given the variety of reactions by governments of countries experiencing similar food price shocks, the 2007–9 crisis o…
This open access book presents a topical, comprehensive and differentiated analysis of Germany’s public administration and reforms. It provides an overview on key elements of German public administration at the federal, Länder and local levels of government as well as on current reform activities of the public sector. It examines the key institutional features of German public administration…
This book investigates the reasons behind the 2017 youthquake – which saw the highest rate of youth turnout in a quarter of a century, and an unprecedented gap in youth support for Labour over the Conservative Party – from both a comparative and a theoretical perspective. It compares youth turnout and party allegiance over time and traces changes in youth political participation in the UK s…
This book offers multidisciplinary perspectives on the changing relationships between states, indigenous peoples and industries in the Arctic and beyond. It offers insights from Nordic countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Russia to present different systems of resource governance and practices of managing industry-indigenous peoples’ relations in the mining industry, renewable resour…
This open access textbook offers a critical introduction to human and economic development prospects in Africa revolving around three questions: where is Africa today, what explains the current state, and, given historical trends and what we know about the world, where do we think the continent will be in 2040? And, a final question: what can we do to create a better tomorrow? It models ambitio…
Climate Crisis Economics draws on economics, political economy, scientific literature, and data to gauge the extent to which our various communities – political, economic, business – are making the essential leap to a new narrative and policy approach that will accelerate us towards the necessary transition to a decarbonized economy and sustainable future. The book draws out policies and pr…
Rivers, landscapes, whole territories: these are the latest entities environmental activists have fought hard to include in the relentless expansion of rights in our world. But what does it mean for a landscape to have rights? Why would anyone want to create such rights, and to what end? Is it a good idea, and does it come with risks? This book presents the logic behind giving nature rights and…
The study of universities’ role in regional engagement has traditionally been focusing on exceptional cases. This book presents a reconceptualision which embraces its underlying complexity, and proposes a roadmap for a renewed research agenda. Starting from the grassroots level of universities’ "everyday" engagements, the book delves into the manifold ways in which university knowledge agen…
This book focuses on the referendums against water privatisation in Italy and explores how activists took to social media, ultimately convincing twenty-seven million citizens to vote. Investigating the relationship between social movements and internet-related activism during complex campaigns, this book examines how a technological evolution-the increased relevance of social media platforms-af…