This open book provides an updated and fully revised 4th edition of this authoritative analysis of Swiss democracy. It particularly explains the institutions of federalism and consensus government through political power sharing. In this new edition, the authors also address several important changes and challenges that have affected Swiss democrac...
This open book develops a framework for advancing agroecology transformations focusing on power, politics and governance. It explores the potential of agroecology as a sustainable and socially just alternative to today's dominant food regime. Agroecology is an ecological approach to farming that addresses climate change and biodiversity loss w...
This open book offers essential information on values-based practice (VBP): the clinical skills involved, teamwork and person-centered care, links between values and evidence, and the importance of partnerships in shared decision-making. Different cultures have different values; for example, partnership in decision-making looks very different, from...
This open book provides an in-depth look into the background of rule of law problems and the open defiance of EU law in East Central European countries. Current illiberal trends and anti-EU politics have the potential to undermine mutual trust between member states and fundamentally change the EU. It is therefore crucial to understand their domesti...
This open book is a comparative analysis of recent large scale education reforms that broadened curriculum goals to better prepare students for the 21st century. The book examines what governments actually do when they broaden curriculum goals, with attention to the details of implementation. To this end, the book examines system level reforms in s...
This open volume identifies the common and specific aspects of social mechanisms that generate inequalities, through comparative analyses of different dimensions in which inequalities are expressed. It includes studies on social inequalities in 5 European and 5 Latin American countries, along 11 thematic axes: inequalities in the labour market and ...
In this open publication it is shown, that sustainable low carbon development is a transformative process that constitutes the shifting from the initially chosen or taken pathway to another pathway as goals have been re-visited and revised to enable the system to adapt to changes. However, shifting entails transition costs that are accrued through ...
This open book constitutes an ethnographic mosaic which depicts the contextual complexities of the life and work of seafarers who are employed in the international merchant cargo fleet. The collection is based upon the observations and interviews of researchers in multiple disciplines. It is woven together to offer a richly detailed insight into th...
This open book investigates the transnationally connected history of Arab Christian communities in Palestine during the British Mandate (1918-1948) through the lens of the birth of cultural diplomacy. Relying predominantly on unpublished sources, it examines the relationship between European cultural agendas and local identity formation processes a...
This open book critiques real world learning across both the curriculum and extracurricular activities. Drawing on disciplines as diverse as business, health, fashion, sociology and geography, the editors and authors employ a cross-disciplinary approach to examine how this concept is being applied in higher education. Divided into three parts, the ...
This open book offers a selection of research papers and case studies presented at the 3rd international conference "Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions", held in December 2019 in Bolzano, Italy, and explores the concept of smart and sustainable planning, including top contributions from academics, policy makers, consult...
How long can humans live? This open access book documents, verifies and brings to life the advance of the frontier of human survival. It carefully validates data on supercentenarians, aged 110+, and semi-supercentenarians, aged 105-109, stored in the International Database on Longevity (IDL). The chapters in this book contribute substantial advance...
This open book is an outcome of the collaboration between the Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Section, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria, and the German Science Foundation research unit DASI...
This book is arranged and developed around the theme of "2050 China," it analyzes the factors and advantages of the Chinese road to socialist modernization, explores and summarizes the development goal and the basic logic of the socialist modernization of China, and further shows the general basis of the primary stage of socialism. Accord...
This open book offers a unique and practically oriented study of organisational and national conditions for implementing Responsible Research Innovation (RRI) policies and practices. It gives the reader a thorough understanding of the different aspects of RRI, and of barriers and drivers of implementation of RRI related policies. It shows how diffe...
This edited volume is an open title and assembles both the historical consciousness and transformation of the MENA region in various disciplinary and topical facets. At the same time, it aims to go beyond the MENA region, contributing to critical debates on area studies while pointing out transregional and cultural references in a broad and compara...
This open book discusses financial crisis management and policy in Europe and Latin America, with a special focus on equity and democracy. Based on a three-year research project by the Jean Monnet Network, this volume takes an interdisciplinary, comparative approach, analyzing both the role and impact of the EU and regional organizations in Latin A...
This open volume surveys the state of the field to examine whether a fifth wave of deterrence theory is emerging. Bringing together insights from world-leading experts from three continents, the volume identifies the most pressing strategic challenges, frames theoretical concepts, and describes new strategies.
The use and utility of deterrence in...
This open book provides the first-ever comparative study on criminal policy concerning the illicit trade of tobacco, conducted among four comparatively new EU Member States (Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Romania) and two "old" EU countries (Germany and Italy). The book addresses the national legal frameworks, current criminological situ...
This open book presents selected papers from International Symposium on Mathematics, Quantum Theory, and Cryptography (MQC), which was held on September 25-27, 2019 in Fukuoka, Japan. The international symposium MQC addresses the mathematics and quantum theory underlying secure modeling of the post quantum cryptography including e.g. mathematical s...
This open methodological book summarises existing analysing techniques using data from PIAAC, a study initiated by the OECD that assesses key cognitive and occupational skills of the adult population in more than 40 countries. The approximately 65 PIAAC datasets that has been published worldwide to date has been widely received and used by an inter...
This open book aims to show which factors have been decisive in the rise of successful countries. Never before have so many people been so well off. However, prosperity is not a law of nature; it has to be worked for. A liberal economy stands at the forefront of this success - not as a political system, but as a set of economic rules promoting comp...
This open book explores the enactment, impact and implications of the Prevent Duty across a range of educational contexts. In July 2015 the UK became the first country to place a specific legal requirement on those working in education to contribute to efforts to 'prevent people from being drawn into terrorism'. Drawing on extensive re...
This open book constitutes the proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2020, which was planned to be held during June 8-12, 2020, at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was postponed until an undetermined date.XP is the premier agile software devel...
This open book explores the conceptual challenges posed by the presence of migrants with irregular immigration status in Europe and the evolving policy responses at European, national and municipal level. It addresses the conceptual and policy issues raised, post-entry, by this particular section of the migrant population. Drawing on evidence from ...
This open short reader discusses the emerging patterns of sedentary migration versus mobility of the highly-skilled thereby providing a comprehensive overview of the recent literature on highly-skilled migration. Highly-skilled migrations are arguably the only non-controversial migrant category in political and public discourse. The common percepti...
This open book adopts a rights-based approach to shed light on the different legal and policy instruments that have been developed to implement circular migration policies in the EU, and their consequences for the rights of migrant workers. It contributes to the understanding of the meaning of this concept in general and in the EU, as well as speci...
Aquatic ecosystems are rich in biodiversity and home to a diverse array of species and habitats, providing a wide variety of benefits to human beings. Many of these valuable ecosystems are at risk of being irreversibly damaged by human activities and pressures, including pollution, contamination, invasive species, overfishing and climate change. Su...
This open handbook brings together the latest research from a wide range of internationally influential scholars to analyze educational policy research from international, historical and interdisciplinary perspectives. By effectively breaking through the boundaries between countries and disciplines, it presents new theories, techniques and methods ...
This open book constitutes the 6 research workshops, the Agile Education and Training Track, the Doctoral Symposium, as well as a panel presented at XP 2020, the 21st International Conference on Agile Software Development, which was held during June 8-12, 2020. The conference was planned to take place at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Du...
This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Semantic Systems, SEMANTiCS 2020, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in September 2020....
This open book examines the multiple intersections between national and international courts in the field of investment protection, and suggests possible modes for regulating future jurisdictional interactions between domestic courts and international tribunals. The current system of foreign investment protection consists of more than 3,000 interna...