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A sweeping account of the global rise of English and the high-stakes politics of languageSpoken by a quarter of the world's population, English is today's lingua franca- - its common tongue. The language of business, popular media, and international politics, English has become commodified for its economic value and increasingly detached from any particular nation. This meteoric "riseof English" has many obvious benefits to communication. Tourists can travel abroad with greater ease. Political leaders can directly engage their counterparts. Researchers can collaborate with foreign colleagues. Business interests can flourish in the global economy.But the rise of English has very real downside...
There are severe problems with the decision-making processes currently widely used, leading to ineffective use of evidence, faulty decisions, wasting of resources and the erosion of public and political support. In this book an international team of experts provide solutions. The transformation suggested includes rethinking how evidence is assessed, combined, communicated and used in decision-making; using effective methods when asking experts to make judgements (i.e. avoiding just asking an expert or a group of experts!); using a structured process for making decisions that incorporate the evidence and having effective processes for learning from actions. In each case, the specific problem ...
As major environmental crises loom, Christina Ergas makes the argument in Surviving Collapse that one possible way forward is a radical sustainable development that turns the focus from monetary gain to social and ecological regeneration and transformation. Employing qualitative and cross-national comparative methods, Ergas examines two alternative, community-scale, socioecological models of development: the first is a grassroots urban ecovillage in the Pacific Northwest, United States, while the second is a government-subsidized, but cooperatively run, urban farm in Havana, Cuba. While neither are panaceas, they prioritize social and ecological efficiency and subsume economic rationality towards those ends. Featuring cases that not only allow us to synthesize their strengths but evaluate their weaknesses, Surviving Collapse reveals a multitude of varied paths toward reaching radical urban sustainability and empowers us all to imagine, and possibly build, more resilient futures.
With a focus on environmentally friendly rice farming, this unique book integrates both ecosystem and human dimensions of ecological restoration to provide strategies to promote sustainable agriculture and rural development. Paddy fields have multiple functions beyond their role of producing rice: They serve as refuge habitats for a range of wildlife that once inhabited floodplain wetlands and contain a number of unique and threatened aquatic species. They also provide various ecosystem services for regional communities such as water retention, erosion control, flood control, fish culture, and educational opportunities. However, rice paddies are threatened worldwide due to the modernization ...
This book is a look into the possibilities for the emergence of a single and universal native language by taking into consideration the common denominator that characterizes all spoken languages: sounds. This book describes the acquisition of language in terms of speech, its use, and its development or evolution. The hypothesis of a monolingual world is supported by strong arguments, facts, and theories. This is both a descriptive and a prescriptive approach in the sens that not only Mr. Dufour portrays the current linguistic status quo as it is, but also, he prescribes a way to go about making our planet monolingual through a detailed awareness campaign plan and practical views likely to help us achieve that goal if followed properly. His approach is a novel one and is commendable. This is a reference book, definitely one to read, whether you're a linguist or not.
This book discusses the latest advances in affective and pleasurable design. Further, it reports on important theoretical and practical issues, covering a wealth of topics including aesthetics in product and system design, design-driven innovation, affective computing, evaluation tools for emotion, Kansei engineering for products and services, and many more. Based on the AHFE 2018 International Conference on Affective and Pleasurable Design, held on July 21–25, 2018, in Orlando, Florida, USA, the book provides a timely survey and inspiring guide for all researchers and professionals involved in design, e.g. industrial designers, emotion designers, ethnographers, human–computer interaction researchers, human factors engineers, interaction designers, mobile product designers, and vehicle system designers.
From a founding figure in the field, the definitive introduction to an exciting new science. What do the sounds of a chorus of tropical birds and frogs, a clap of thunder, and a cacophony of urban traffic have in common? They are all components of a soundscape, acoustic environments that have been identified by scientists as a combination of the biophony, geophony, and anthrophony, respectively, of all of Earth’s sound sources. As sound is a ubiquitous occurrence in nature, it is actively sensed by most animals and is an important way for them to understand how their environment is changing. For humans, environmental sound is a major factor in creating a psychological sense of place, and m...
The natural wealth of the Amazon and Andes has long attracted fortune seekers, from explorers, farmers, and gold panners to multimillion-dollar mining, oil and gas, and timber operations. Modern demands for commodities have given rise to new development schemes, including hydroelectric dams, open cast mines, and industrial agricultural operations. The history of human habitation in this region is intimately tied to its rich biodiversity, and the Amazon basin is home to scores of indigenous groups, many of whom have populations so small that their cultural and physical survival is endangered. Landscapes of Inequity explores the debate over rights to and use of resources and addresses fundamen...
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Solar geoengineering could reduce climate change, but poses risks. This volume explores how it is, could, and should be governed.