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  • - Personal and Communal Challenges
    by Catalina Elena Dobre
    £37.99

    This book seeks to generate a theoretical and a reflective framework to re-connect people with culture and spirituality. It seeks to recreate important links between these domains to provide interpretative, foundational, and ethical perspectives. It is distinctive in that it focusses on the challenges that humanity is facing at a cultural, social, moral, and spiritual level. It provides a philosophical understanding of humanity from a humanistic and multidisciplinary perspective (encompassing ethics, language, art/cinema, political, cultural and gender approaches) and offers a variety of ways of how we can rethink our culture and our society for the future.

  • - How the Us Came to Lead the World
    by Edward Goldberg
    £94.49

    The United States as Global Liberal Hegemon examines America's role as the global liberal hegemon. Using a historical analysis to understand how the United States came to serve as the world leader, Goldberg argues why the role of a liberal hegemon is needed, whether the United States has the ability to fulfill this role, and what the pitfalls and liabilities of continuing in this role are for the nation. He also considers the impact that this role on the global stage has for the country as well as individual citizens of the United States. Goldberg argues that the United States's geographic location away from strong competitors, it's role as the dominant economy for much of the 20th century, and its political culture of meritocracy all contributed to the United States taking this role in the 1940s. He also argues that the role of liberal hegemon has shifted to include not only being the international policeperson but also to be the world's central banker, a role that at this time only the Unites States can fill.

  • - International Perspectives and Contestations
    by Ann E Lopez
    £122.49

    This volume explores theories and practices of decolonizing education, drawing on international perspectives from scholars across the globe to engage new knowledges and build solidarities across different spaces. Decolonization is an ongoing process in which educators, community members, and practitioners alike have a stake in challenging Eurocentric paradigms and ways of knowing. The book showcases the contributions of praxis-oriented scholars and practitioners who seek to engage in decolonizing praxis that unsettles educational norms, forging new ways of thinking about teaching, learning, and leadership.

  • - Equity and Access in Work-Based Learning for Young People
    by Lisette Nieves
    £90.49

    This book builds on the success of "Working to Learn" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) by focusing on the future of work and how young people, especially low-income young people and young people of color, are pursuing college and career goals through work-based learning experiences, yet encountering an increasingly racially and socioeconomically stratified labor market and educational system. Through policy analysis and case studies both from US and abroad, the authors will present the argument for why these models warrant revisitation, innovation, and investment, and elevate profiles of young workers, nonprofits, corporate partners, and governments today who are using work opportunities to open doors once closed.

  • - British Slavery in the Caribbean and the Holocaust in Germany and Occupied Europe
    by Colin Clarke
    £114.49

    This book compares the systems of exploitative race relations associated with two racist regimes - slavery in the British colonial Caribbean and forced labour in the Holocaust in Germany and the Nazi-occupied lands in Europe. Although each system was introduced by expansionist European powers, through racist enslavement, transportation, dehumanisation and the destruction of human life, the construction and operation of sugar plantations by African and Creole slave labour for the export of tropical products in the period 1650 to 1838 was different from the mass murder of Jewish and Gypsy civilians with the intention of creating a forced-labour regime and colonial-style ethnic cleansing during the Second World War.Though differentiated in time and place, the four principal common denominators that make feasible the detailed comparison of British Caribbean slavery and the Holocaust in Europe are racism, colonialism/occupation, slavery/forced labour, and death. Juxtaposition of these two companion studies will reveal comparisons and contrasts previously unexplored in the field of race relations under colonialism and the Holocaust. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of the social sciences and history, particularly those with an engagement with slavery and forced labour, the sociology of race and racism, and Holocaust studies.

  • by Joseph J Reidy
    £103.99

    This book explores the writing of church history during the early Byzantine period, reconsidering the evidence for the nature and authorship of a hypothetical 'Arian' source for many surviving medieval histories of the fourth century. It considers surviving ecclesiastical histories written between the fifth and early thirteenth centuries to draw out commonalities apparently owed to this 'lost' source and discusses attempts by modern historians to reconstruct it. In doing so, it convincingly argues that this 'Arian' material likely belongs not to one work, but three: two chronicles and a martyrology. This book therefore provides a vital reassessment of fourth-century Christian historiography, as well as important insights on chronicle writing in the Middle Ages.

  • - An Ethnographic Account of the 'Beautiful Mistake'
    by Tharindi Udalagama
    £103.99

    Drawing on extensive research from a 14-month ethnographic study, this book delves into the intricate lives of married women in a rural Sinhala village in Sri Lanka. It explores their efforts to uphold community expectations while employing innovative and strategic approaches to navigate ruptures within their marital journeys. The chapters progress by dissecting the pivotal gender roles assumed by women in building happy marriages, establishing stable households, cultivating harmonious homes, and achieving effective household management. At the heart of this narrative is the concept of 'homemaking, ' which symbolises not only family life but also social stature. The text discusses how the categorisation of homes as 'good' or 'bad' relies on women's conscientious adherence to gender norms. Notably, the author also looks at the unique practice of married women resorting to sorcery as a means to mitigate the challenges stemming from marital disruptions while remaining aligned with societal gender expectations. Throughout, chapters systematically investigate the spectrum of opportunities available to these women, alongside the constraints they encounter, as they endeavour to cultivate successful marriages. Overall, the book provides profound insights into the complex interplay of married life, spotlighting women's astute negotiations of their roles and adept management of ruptures within the framework of established gender norms.This book will be of interest to scholars in Gender Studies, Anthropology, Family Studies, and South Asian Studies.

  • by Lynne Barker
    £58.49

    How to Build a Human Brain takes a developmental approach to understanding brain structure and function. It guides readers through the evolution of the human brain, from its cellular building blocks, up to hind brain structures and functions, and through to neocortex and associated functions. In doing so, it enables students to develop a comprehensive knowledge of the relationship between brain networks and functions, neural underpinnings of functional problems seen after neuropathology, and neuroanatomy.Written in an engaging style, each chapter follows a blueprint format with subsections on issues like 'damage and repair' and 'faulty wiring' as the brain is 'built' across the course of the book. The author includes illustrative case studies and entertaining fast fact boxes to highlight the real-word relevance of each brain structure being examined. This textbook offers an accessible reference for students of neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology, and biological psychology.

  • - The Adolescentia Project
    by Mary Beth Ray
    £90.49

    Essays on Music, Adolescence, and Identity: The Adolescentia Project explores music consumption, self-discovery, media culture, and memory through autoethnographic essays on albums we loved during adolescence covering three decades (1980-2010) as the music industry and socio-cultural identity landscapes in the United States significantly changed. The collection advances our understanding of music culture, identity, and adolescence in three ways. First, by expanding our knowledge of the shifting relationship between music and identity by using historical methods to examine changes in music culture and socio-cultural landscapes from 1980 to 2010. Second, by interrogating the role of musical memory and the act of cultural remembering by including autoethnographic reflective essays charting contributors' experiences of understanding and performing self through a particularly formative album of their adolescence. And third, by critiquing the act of music consumption in relation to identity construction and cultural remembering. By examining these influential albums, we can better understand the role of popular culture in identity construction and the long-term impact of these formative musical experiences.

  • - Coping Strategies for Employees
    by Marie-Line Germain
    £34.49

    The onset of the pandemic has placed a greater emphasis on mental health, with many organizations making it a business imperative to ensure that employees are fully supported. Research on mental health in the workplace continues to grow, though there is a dearth of scholarly writings taking a micro approach to understanding the impact of negative work environments. This three-book series explores issues related to personality disorders and work-related suicides and the effect on employees and leaders. This volume focuses on the harmful effects of psychopathy in the workplace. The book is divided into three sections: defining psychopathy, identifying it through its effects on workplace productivity and performance, and understanding how that knowledge can limit its effect. With chapter contributions from authors around the world, this collection offers global perspectives on the harmful role that psychopathy can play in the workplace. Tackling topics such as abusive supervision and workplace bullying, this book will advance scholarship related to employee well-being, employee engagement, and counterproductive workplace behaviors.

  • - Dirigisme, Globalization and Disruption
    by Ahmet Akarli
    £90.49

    This book offers a comprehensive economic history of emerging market economies post-WWII and identifies a complex web of sustainability problems that face the EMEs going forward. It seeks to present a truly global perspective on the development of EMEs and the long-term trends that have brought EMEs to a critical economic juncture. The first section of the book charts how EMEs became tightly integrated into the global economy at rapid pace, analysing economic achievements as well as imbalances and sustainability issues that have been generated over time. It considers how EMEs have withstood episodes of complex structural transitions and financial shocks, and offers comparative perspectives on patterns of dispersion within the EME landscape from the end of WWII to the present. The second part of the book seeks to understand how EMEs might cope with the volatility brought about by a new 'age of disruption' defined by major structural challenges to the neo-liberal economic order. It considers which EMEs are best positioned to respond to issues of economic inequality, financial excess, technological disruption and climate change, what a global historical understanding of the EMEs can offer to policymakers, and the impact on the EME investment landscape. This book will be of interest to a broad audience including researchers of economic history and political economy, as well as policymakers, investment professionals, and the general reader interested in global economic development.

  • by Rebecca Ball
    £114.49

    Stanley Rice, born in London in 1905, began his autobiography by stating that his life was 'an ordinary average life with all its ups and downs'. Stanley may have described his life as ordinary, and yet he lived through a period of rapid social change, including two world wars. Despite this, Stanley assumed that his life story would be of little interest to most readers, as he had not achieved great fame or any notable accolades. This book argues that this is exactly why historians should focus on such life stories, as there is much to be gained by focusing on memories of 'ordinary average lives', as they can expand our knowledge of the past, often revealing firsthand experiences that have been excluded from the historical record. This book does not intend to be a general social history of the working class. Rather, it is a work of memory, drawing upon a microhistory methodology to examine how a sample of one hundred working-class autobiographers remembered and wrote about living through years that were punctuated by two worldwide conflicts and a global economic depression.

  • - Employment, Identity, and Support Networks for Neurominorities
    by Eric Patton
    £140.99

    This interdisciplinary work explores creating more inclusive workplaces around neurodiversity. It focuses on how organizations can promote true inclusion for neurominorities, a large segment of the emerging workforce while underlining the difficulties as well as the strength-based characteristics faced by this population.Beyond social, learning or communication challenges, neurominorities are often highly intelligent, honest, authentic, hyper-focused, innovative, skilled in various forms of perception, reliable, and resilient. Discovering ways for true inclusion can add value to organizations, helping all employees to learn and develop as colleagues while also helping neurominorities fulfill the goals of achieving dignity, respect, independence, and flourishing through work. This volume connects neurodiversity to disability in the workplace and examines the factors that contribute to the successful employment and integration of neurodiverse workers, including the transition from school to the labor market. It also highlights barriers and challenges faced by neurominorities. This book will appeal to scholars across business and the social sciences looking to better understand how neurodiversity should be addressed in organizational contexts. The multidisciplinary approach will accelerate management research and practices by providing insights already captured across a wide variety of disciplines, rather than prompting management researchers to build upon what currently exists solely in the management literature

  • - Unruly Images
    by Mark Kaethler
    £144.99

    This edited collection reconnects the literary imagination to the early modern cognitive environment. Under the spell of post-romantic aesthetics, modernist criticism regarded the imagination as an autonomous driver of artistic production and severed its dense ties to the image, reducing the latter to a formalistic category emptied of psychological significance. But early modern writers and thinkers did not hold such views. They understood the literary image to issue from the embodied mental faculties of the author and, through its rhetorical inscription, to influence, in turn, the interiority of the reader. For both authors and readers, then, engaging with images was not a detached aesthetic experience; it was a psycho-physiological struggle fraught with ethical peril insofar as the imagination was known for its volatility and unruliness, susceptible to the dysfunction brought on by disease and bearing, at times, in Protestant England the taint of superstition and idolatry. This volume accordingly investigates the imagination's alliances, altercations, and betrayals with rival cognitive operations based upon premodern faculty psychology.

  • - Causality, Stratification and Outcomes
    by Armando Barrientos
    £43.99

    ​This book offers a comprehensive analysis of social protection in Latin America, its origins, institutions, and outcomes. The chapters are organised in three groups. The earlier chapters discuss in turn appropriate methods, an analytical framework, and core institutions. The book advocates a causal inference approach to the study of the institutions that have dominated social protection in the region: occupational insurance, individual retirement savings, and social assistance. The middle chapters study social protection's main stratification effects, focussing on stratification effects on employment, protection, and worker incorporation. The later chapters then assess social protection outcomes and identify country groupings including their evolution over time. The book, and its approach and findings, contributes to the advancement of a theory of social protection amongst late industrialisers.This is an open access book.

  • - Interreligious Perspectives
    by Maria Power
    £114.49

    This volume brings together 11 experts from a range of religious backgrounds, to consider how each tradition has interpreted matters of violence and peace in relation to its sacred text. The traditions covered are Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism. The role of religion in conflict, war, and the creation of peaceful settlements has attracted much academic attention, including considerations of the interpretation of violence in sacred texts. This collection breaks new ground by bringing multiple faiths into conversation with one another with specific regard to the handling of violence and peace in sacred texts. This combination of close attention to text and expansive scope of religious inclusion is the first of its kind.

  • by Bengt Sandin
    £37.99

    This open access edited volume investigates children and youth's deep entanglement in today's major global, national, and local transformations and processes: wherein they are not mere spectators and objects of transformations but instead actively shape them through various social, economic, and political representations. International contributions illuminate the problems that arise when children's rights and participation become a site of contestation and power over who represents whom, what, when, and where. The authors do not provide simple solutions, instead offering an understanding of the fundamental nature of these problems as founded in the application of rights and the nature of representation in modern society. Together, the authors emphasize that child representation must take into account the local and spatial context of how representations of children are discussed, as well as possible discrepancies between local, regional, national, and global processes.

  • - Represented Law in the Modern Novel
    by Dagmar Stöferle
    £90.49

    There is a prehistory of the adultery novel, which became a pan-European literary paradigm in the second half of the 19th century. In the wake of the French Revolution, secular marriage legislation emerges, producing a metaphorical surplus that is still effective today. Using legal history and canonical literary texts from Rousseau to Goethe and Manzoni to Hugo and Flaubert, this book traces how marriage around 1800 became a figure of reflection for the modern nation-state. In the process, original contributions to the philology of the individual texts emerge. At the same time, law and literature are made fruitful for a historical semantics of society and community.This book is a translation of an original German 1st edition "Ehe als Nationalfiktion" by Dagmar Stöferle, published by J.B. Metzler, imprint of Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). The author (with the support of Chris Owain Carter) has subsequently revised the text further in an endeavour to refine the work stylistically.

  • - An Introduction to Evolutionary Linguistics
    by Joanna Dornbierer-Stuart
    £30.49

    Roughly eight million years ago, a branch of hominids from the forests of East Africa started to adapt to the drier environment created by the East African Rift System. A host of physical developments culminated in the brains of early humans increasing dramatically in size and cognitive power. Aided by a unique social organisation, communication signals became conventionalized and passed on from generation to generation through imitation and learning. But language is not only used to interact with our fellow beings. It is also closely connected to our thoughts. This makes language a biological, social, cultural and cognitive phenomenon all at once. What precise role did each of these aspects play in the origin of language and how were they all coordinated to produce the most sophisticated communication system in the animal kingdom? This book aims to answer these questions and open up the fascinating world of evolutionary linguistics. It should not only appeal to students of linguisticsand related fields (e.g. psychology, anthropology, cognitive science) but also to anyone with an interest in language, language learning and communication. Also ideal for advanced students of English as a Foreign Language.

  • - Environment and Fluidity
    by Vasiliki Angelaki
    £43.99

    This open access book considers how relationships to place and spatial ecologies more broadly are becoming redefined in light of intersecting climate, health, identity and care crises. Through an interdisciplinary, intersectional discourse it investigates how spaces of liminality frame contemporary human conditions in their interactional modes with both human and non-human ecologies. The interspace grounds the discussion, indicating states of flux and transience, where the in-between is the defining characteristic. This open access monograph, then, takes up the new complexity in one's relationship(s) to their surrounding spaces through a rigorous discussion of texts and performance contexts in cutting-edge contemporary British theatre on a national and international scale. It seeks to address how in-betweenness spatially, temporally, environmentally, geographically and socially conceived has been emerging as the primary state for the unmoored individual of our time - and how it might serve as catalyst for performing one's agency in modes more empathetic not only to other humans, but, also, and equally, to the non-human world.

  • - They Work Hard for the Money
    by Jennifer Vanderpool
    £114.49

    Performative Representation of Working-Class Laborers: They Work Hard for the Money is a transdisciplinary anthology intersecting art theory praxis, comparative literature, film & media studies, performance art, ethnic studies, gender studies, age & aging, geography, and labor studies. The book investigates and analyzes artwork created by artists or collectives working within the dialogue of Postmodernism and current global arts production. The focus on performative aspect of labor as art and affect becomes more sensate and less about the exploited body of labourers, liberating the representation of waged bodies and further diversifying the field of Working-Class Studies.

  • by Linda Pillière
    £112.99

    This edited volume celebrates cutting-edge research in stylistics and, more specifically, recent work on sense and the senses. The title originated in the Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA) 2022 conference and marks the 40th onsite event by showcasing some of the excellent papers delivered on that occasion. The selected chapters fall into 4 parts each of which gives pride of place to how style makes sense and how senses make style. The chapters follow research in neuroscience and sociocognition, investigate how body and mind are inextricably linked through embodied meaning; how emotions are both conveyed and perceived; and how impressions, thoughts and worldviews can be induced by a certain style. The apprehension of the senses is carried through a variety of theories (cognitive linguistics and stylistics, ecostylistics, phenomenology, simulation theory, enactivism, metaphor theory, Text World Theory) and is applied to various genres (poetry, novels, short stories, detectivefiction, restaurant reviews) and media (the oral vs written tradition, ekphrasis, and semiotic transfers). This book will be of interest to students and academics in stylistics, cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, ecostylistics, and multimodality.

  • - Childhood, Environment, Indigeneity
    by Jan Jagodzinski
    £94.49

    This volume, the first of a two volume set, addresses three major areas in response to the post-Anthropocene: childhood, environment and indigeneity. Each of these areas is broadly addressed in relation to the concerns that have arisen both theoretically and educationally. The author terms these to be encounters as each area presents a particular problematic when addressing the phase change that the planet is undergoing where the anthropogenic labour of global humanity is contributing to climate change, endangering our very existence. There has been a concerted effort to overcome the nature-culture divide in education. The author reviews this development in the first section where there has been a particular emphasis placed on childhood education. In the second section he turns to the pedagogical theories that are attempting to overcome this same divide in environmental and science education. The last section attempts to bring into the conversation the vast literature on Indigeneity and their attempts to revise traditional education to meet these extraordinary times.

  • - An Emerging Market Perspective
    by Alexander Karminsky
    £131.49

    This book provides an analysis of various sources and forms of systemic financial risk. It focuses on the most pressing research questions for both advanced and emerging market economies, including green finance, ESG agenda and related risks, international financial connectivity across countries and financial institutions, and catastrophic risks modeling. Part 1 considers emerging research issues in risk assessment and management, including new approaches to measuring financial development, trends and prospects of green finance, and cross-country financial spillovers. Part 2 casts a more nuanced look at the quantitative models and methods adopted in risk assessment and risk management, putting such issues as measuring catastrophic risks, liquidity mismatches as well as modeling probabilities of default and the impact of macroeconomic fundamentals on capital adequacy ratios in the Russian banking sector in the spotlight. Finally, Part 3 discusses the new regulatory challenges dealingwith risk assessment and risk management, such as macroprudential policies which have proved efficient to mitigate systemic risk are investigated. The book offers a comprehensive picture of the challenges which emerging market economies are facing in the field of financial risk assessment and management. Specifically, the challenges are discussed in the context of elaborated models and policy responses, which are based on the up-to-date theoretical contributions and empirical evidence from various fields, making the book relevant to professors, researchers, graduate students, and practitioners of risk management, international finance, and financial services.

  • - Law, Economics, and Finance
    by Hung-Yi Chen
    £131.49

    The metaverse is undergoing rapid and transformative changes, yet it has thus far lacked a comprehensive scholarly examination from a global and comparative standpoint. The publication addresses existing gaps by introducing fresh perspectives and frameworks across various domains within the metaverse, including law, economics, and finance. Drawing upon the expertise of an international cohort of scholars and practitioners, this volume illuminates emerging interdisciplinary insights with global relevance, facilitating a comparative analysis of diverse aspects of the metaverse. Timely and essential, this book contributes significantly to the metaverse literature, addressing urgent issues in this evolving landscape.

  • - Stories from Queens College
    by Magnus O Bassey
    £114.49

    This book sheds light on the untold stories of individual student activists at Queens College, New York City, during the 1960s. Against the backdrop of the ongoing Vietnam War and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, some Americans began to lose faith in their government. Based on injustices that students saw in their campuses, in the country, and in the world at large, they began to question their political leaders. Students organized their discontents over three major issues: civil rights, free speech, and anti-war sentiments. Their protests involved direct actions such as sit-ins, marches, picketing, and boycotts. At Queens College (QC), as the students moved away from the repressive McCarthy era of the 1950s, they began to confront and challenge those in power at the college in the 1960s. The defining characteristic of this break from the past was a student strike in 1961 in objection to the ban of controversial speakers who had been invited to campus by student clubs. The student strike of 1961 gave the activists among them a direct and immediate way to fight power on campus and to fight racism and discrimination. The author argues that student movements cannot be attributed to a single explanation, and therefore, he focuses on individual historical contexts, presenting first-person narratives from the actual participants, and tells their stories in their own voices, from their own records, and from the documents they left behind. The book identifies the QC student activists of the 1960s, exploring how and why they became activists; their activities; their achievement as activists; and what motivated them to think that they could make history themselves by confronting racism. It provides an intimate look at the students' lives and their social justice journey, beginning at Queens College and as they moved into their careers.

  • - Technology, Neurology, Quantum
    by Jan Jagodzinski
    £94.49

    As a follow up to Pedagogical Encounters in the Post-Anthropocene, Volume I, this book addresses three major areas in response to the post-Anthropocene: Technology, Neurology, Quantum. Each of these areas is broadly addressed in relation to the concerns that have arisen both theoretically and educationally. As in Volume I, the author terms these to be encounters as each area presents a particular problematic when addressing the phase change that the planet is undergoing where the anthropogenic labour of global humanity is contributing to climate change, endangering our very existence. Technology in education has been a significant development. There is a concerted effort to review this development placing stress on the rise of learning machines and algorithms. In the second encounter the vast literature on neurology is addressed, especially neurodiversity and the various symptoms that have emerged in the post-Anthropocene era. The last section reviews issues related to quantum theory as this is fundamental to tensions between physics and metaphysics. The volume concludes with the author¿s own pedagogical proposal for the future.

  • - Three Decades of the Fourth Republic
    by Joseph R a Ayee
    £103.99

    This book is one of two volumes that examines the successes and failures of the Ghanaian Fourth Republic from a political, public administration and public policy viewpoint. Published to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Fourth Republic, these volumes bring together leading scholars to consider the political achievements and failures that have taken place in the country since the early 1990s, and what these tell us about the state of politics and democracy in twenty-first century Ghana and beyond. This volume focuses on party politics, political communication and public policy. It assesses themes such as interest groups, electoral politics, democratization, constitutionalism, the role of the media, and gender and politics. The volume also places Ghana in a global context, demonstrating how lessons learnt from the country can be applied elsewhere around the world, and what is unique about the Ghanaian political experience. It will appeal to all those interested in public policy, public administration and African politics.

  • - Nostalgia, Politics, Lifecycles, Mediations, and Materialities
    by Tobias Becker
    £124.49

    This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the different ways in which the past remains present in Western popular culture in the twenty-first century. It combines theoretical analyses with case study-based chapters focusing on examples from Britain, the US, and Germany, among other countries. In doing so, it pushes beyond a simplistic and monolithic conception of what 'nostalgia' is to allow for a more nuanced and varied conceptualisation of this phenomenon, and to also incorporate other ways of understanding the invoking or inclusion of different histories within cultural objects, formats, and practices.

  • - Theory, Methods and Evaluation
    by António Tavares
    £104.49

    This book provides a comprehensive analysis of municipal amalgamation reforms in Europe. Adopting the analytical and methodological tools of comparative historical analysis, it examines how the history of local government systems has conditioned the adoption of municipal amalgamation reforms across time and space. Beginning with Sweden's early amalgamation reforms during the late 1940s and early 1950s, it assesses how the evolution of the Welfare State, decentralization, urbanization, and economic growth have all impacted amalgamation reforms in ten other European countries. The book challenges the prevailing theory that amalgamations are implemented by rational design to improve the efficiency and capacity of local governments. Instead, it argues that state sovereignty, regime changes, centralization of authority and diffusion effects are more likely causes of the adoption of municipal amalgamation reforms. It will appeal to all those interested in public administration, public policy, European politics, and local governance studies.

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