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This book explores democracy beyond the governmental structures and focuses on participatory governance in particular. It demonstrates that we need to change the way we think about democracy and our notion of democracy has to be re-conceptualised.
As urban areas have grown and sprawl has spread in recent decades, metropolitan governments around the world have begun to look beyond city borders, establishing regional partnerships to help them deal with issues of transit, resource use, and more. Metropolitan Governance examines this trend through a close comparative study of seven metropolitan areas in Israel and Germany. While not neglecting the reasons behind these changes in governance, the authors pay particular attention to their effects on--and diminishing of--democratic participation and accountability.
The novels of Theodor Fontane (1819-1898), Germany's most important Realist, have long been appreciated for the symbolism of their represented worlds. In this study, Michael White examines the significance of space and spatial experience across Fontane's oeuvre, providing analyses of non-fiction prose and less well-known novels, alongside major works and poetry. The study reveals not only a complex and varied spatial symbolism, but also that space itself is a thematic concern in Fontane's writing. His texts portray human beings' relationships with their worlds, and how and to what end they invest their environment with meaning. Fontane's novels and travel writings emerge as profoundly reflexive discourses on art and its function for the individual. Michael J. White completed his Ph.D. at St Andrews and now teaches German at the Institut de la formation des maîtres, Université d'Artois.
Christian tradition demands basic sustenance for all as a human right. Yet the contemporary capitalist economy makes no such demands, and the free market is not designed to provide basic human sustenance. As Western Christians, how ought we to solve this conundrum? Kent Van Til maintains that the gulf between the two calls for an alternative system of distribution. In this constructively critical work Van Til takes a hard look at the realities of life in a free-market system, including illuminating examples from his own experience in Latin America. He considers how the contemporary capitalist economy guides the distribution of goods around the world, and he examines the inadequacies of this system. Drawing heavily on the ideas of political theorist Michael Walzer and nineteenth-century theologian-statesman Abraham Kuyper, Van Til proposes an alternative system of distributive justice, equalizing the claims to both burdens and benefits.
In recent years, the financialization of housing has become a major challenge to many cities across the globe, not the least because it tends to favor the interests of global finance over the needs of residents. Based on three case studies in the city regions of Zurich, Birmingham and Lyon, the present investigation analyzes the interplay of housing governance and policies over the past 20 years against the backdrop of the financialization of housing.
Nature was central to the Wilhelmine German experience. Medical cosmologies and reform-initiatives were a key to consumer practices and lifestyle choices. Nature's appeal transcended class, confession, and political party. Millions of Germans recognized that nature had healing effects and was intimately tied to quality of life. In the 1880s and 1890s, this preoccupation with nature became an increasingly important part of German popular culture. In this pioneering study, Avi Sharma shows that nature, health, and the body became essential ways of talking about real and imagined social and political problems. The practice of popular medicine in the Wilhelmine era brought nature back into urban...
This book discusses the interrelationship between practices of collective self-interpretation, in this case national identity construction, and integration policies, using the example of Denmark and Sweden. Though both countries are considered to be socially progressive and modern, not least by themselves, the author makes the novel and provocative argument that both Denmark and Sweden are caught in a (discourse) paradox when it comes to integration policy, which stands in the way of successful immigrant integration. The author uses an innovative approach to reconstruct the Danish and the Swedish national identity by using social studies schoolbooks and novels as research material, thereby adding an interdisciplinary dimension to the book. About the author Marilena Geugjes is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany. She earned her doctorate in Political Science at Heidelberg University. Her research focuses on migration and integration policy, local politics, and the role of the police.
Ever since 1927, when The Jazz Singer broke the silence of the silver screen, sound has played an integral role in the development and appreciation of motion pictures. This encyclopedia covers the people, processes, innovations, facilities, manufacturers, formats and award-winning films that have made sound such a crucial part of the motion picture experience. Every film that has won a sound-related Academy Award is included here, with detailed critical commentary. Every sound mixer or editor who has been honored by the Academy has his or her own entry and filmography, and career biographies are provided for key developers including Jack Foley, Ray Dolby, George Lucas, and more.
A fresh examination of the relationship between two key issues in the on-going debate on urban governance - leadership and community involvement. It explores the nature of the interaction between community involvement and political leadership in modern local governance by drawing on empirical data gathered from case-studies concerning cities in England, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. It presents both a country specific and cross-cutting analysis of the contributions that communities and leaders can make to more effective local governance. These country specific chapters are complemented by thematic, comparative chapters addressing alternativ...
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