Governing Africa's Forests in a Globalized World PDF Download

Author: Laura Anne German
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136545514
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
Many countries around the world are engaged in decentralization processes, and most African countries face serious problems with forest governance, from benefits sharing to illegality and sustainable forest management. This book summarizes experiences to date on the extent and nature of decentralization and its outcomes - most of which suggest an underperformance of governance reforms - and explores the viability of different governance instruments in the context of weak governance and expanding commercial pressures over forests. Findings are grouped into two thematic areas: decentralization, livelihoods and sustainable forest management; and international trade, finance and forest sector governance reforms. The authors examine diverse forces shaping the forest sector, including the theory and practice of decentralization, usurpation of authority, corruption and illegality, inequitable patterns of benefits capture and expansion of international trade in timber and carbon credits, and discuss related outcomes on livelihoods, forest condition and equity. The book builds on earlier volumes exploring different dimensions of decentralization and perspectives from other world regions, and distills dimensions of forest governance that are both unique to Africa and representative of broader global patterns. The authors ground their analysis in relevant theory while drawing out implications of their findings for policy and practice.

Author: Dieter Plehwe
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1788732537
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Untangling the long history of neoliberalism Neoliberalism is dead. Again. Yet the philosophy of the free market and the strong state has an uncanny capacity to survive, and even thrive, in times of crisis. Understanding neoliberalism’s longevity and its latest permutation requires a more detailed understanding of its origins and development. This volume breaks with the caricature of neoliberalism as a simple, unvariegated belief in market fundamentalism and homo economicus. It shows how neoliberal thinkers perceived institutions from the family to the university, disagreed over issues from intellectual property rights and human behavior to social complexity and monetary order, and sought to win consent for their project through the creation of new honors, disciples, and networks. Far from a monolith, neoliberal thought is fractured and, occasionally, even at war with itself. We can begin to make sense of neoliberalism’s nine lives only by understanding its own tangled and complex history.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Author: Rozaida Ghazali
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030360563
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 491

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This book provides an introduction to data science and offers a practical overview of the concepts and techniques that readers need to get the most out of their large-scale data mining projects and research studies. It discusses data-analytical thinking, which is essential to extract useful knowledge and obtain commercial value from the data. Also known as data-driven science, soft computing and data mining disciplines cover a broad interdisciplinary range of scientific methods and processes. The book provides readers with sufficient knowledge to tackle a wide range of issues in complex systems, bringing together the scopes that integrate soft computing and data mining in various combinations of applications and practices, since to thrive in these data-driven ecosystems, researchers, data analysts and practitioners must understand the design choice and options of these approaches. This book helps readers to solve complex benchmark problems and to better appreciate the concepts, tools and techniques used.

Author: Ron Eglash
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813526140
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Fractals are characterized by the repetition of similar patterns at ever-diminishing scales. Fractal geometry has emerged as one of the most exciting frontiers on the border between mathematics and information technology and can be seen in many of the swirling patterns produced by computer graphics. It has become a new tool for modeling in biology, geology, and other natural sciences. Anthropologists have observed that the patterns produced in different cultures can be characterized by specific design themes. In Europe and America, we often see cities laid out in a grid pattern of straight streets and right-angle corners. In contrast, traditional African settlements tend to use fractal structures-circles of circles of circular dwellings, rectangular walls enclosing ever-smaller rectangles, and streets in which broad avenues branch down to tiny footpaths with striking geometric repetition. These indigenous fractals are not limited to architecture; their recursive patterns echo throughout many disparate African designs and knowledge systems. Drawing on interviews with African designers, artists, and scientists, Ron Eglash investigates fractals in African architecture, traditional hairstyling, textiles, sculpture, painting, carving, metalwork, religion, games, practical craft, quantitative techniques, and symbolic systems. He also examines the political and social implications of the existence of African fractal geometry. His book makes a unique contribution to the study of mathematics, African culture, anthropology, and computer simulations.

Author: Peter B. Evans
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140082172X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
In recent years, debate on the state's economic role has too often devolved into diatribes against intervention. Peter Evans questions such simplistic views, offering a new vision of why state involvement works in some cases and produces disasters in others. To illustrate, he looks at how state agencies, local entrepreneurs, and transnational corporations shaped the emergence of computer industries in Brazil, India, and Korea during the seventies and eighties. Evans starts with the idea that states vary in the way they are organized and tied to society. In some nations, like Zaire, the state is predatory, ruthlessly extracting and providing nothing of value in return. In others, like Korea, it is developmental, promoting industrial transformation. In still others, like Brazil and India, it is in between, sometimes helping, sometimes hindering. Evans's years of comparative research on the successes and failures of state involvement in the process of industrialization have here been crafted into a persuasive and entertaining work, which demonstrates that successful state action requires an understanding of its own limits, a realistic relationship to the global economy, and the combination of coherent internal organization and close links to society that Evans called "embedded autonomy."

Author: Kazuhisa Takemura
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811654530
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
This book is the second edition of Behavioral Decision Theory, published in 2014. The main approach and structure of this book have been retained in the new edition. However, this second edition provides a fresh overview of the idea of behavioral decision theory and related research findings such as theoretical and empirical discoveries of preference formation, time discounting, social interaction, and social decision making. The book covers a wide range from classical to relatively recent major studies concerning behavioral decision theory, which, in brief, is a general term for descriptive theories to explain the psychological knowledge related to people’s decision-making behavior. It is called a theory but is actually a combination of various psychological theories, for which no axiomatic systems—such as those associated with the utility theory widely used in economics—have been established. The utility theory is often limited to qualitative knowledge; however, as the studies of Nobel laureates H. A. Simon, D. Kahneman, and R. Thaler have suggested, the psychological methodology and knowledge of behavioral decision theory have been applied widely in such fields as economics, business administration, and engineering and are expected to become even more useful in the future. Research into people’s decision making represents an important part in those fields, various aspects of which overlap with the scope of behavioral decision theory. This theory is closely related to behavioral economics and behavioral finance, which have come into greater use in recent years. This book will appeal especially to graduate students, advanced undergraduate students, and researchers who are interested in decision-making phenomena.

Author: John D. Mueller
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 149763637X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
“Groundbreaking.” —Washington Examiner Economics is primed for—and in desperate need of—a revolution, respected economic forecaster John D. Mueller shows in this eye-opening book. To make the leap forward will require looking backward, for as Redeeming Economics reveals, the most important element of economic theory has been ignored for more than two centuries. Since the great Adam Smith tore down this pillar of economic thought, economic theory has been unable to account for a fundamental aspect of human experience: the relationships that define us, the loves (and hates) that motivate and distinguish us as persons. In trying to reduce human behavior to exchanges, modern economists have forgotten how these essential motivations are expressed: as gifts (or their opposite, crimes). Mueller makes economics whole again, masterfully reapplying the economic thought of Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas.

Author: Caroline Ziemke-Dickens
Publisher: NCELTR
ISBN: 9781741383645
Category : National security
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
"The Council for Asian transnational Threat Research (CATR) has its roots in the initial months following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Although the United States initially received widespread global support for what the Bush administration called the global war on terror, over time, as the US war on terror expanded its reach beyond al-Qaida's safe haven in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, allies and partners began to question some aspects of the US approach. Regional experts criticized the disproportionately military response to what they regarded as a threat with primarily political, social, and economic roots and the focus on religiously-motivated jihadists that overlooked other, largely secular, but no less dangerous, violent extremist movements. The regional view of the landscape of transnational threats in Asia extended well beyond al-Qaida, involving loose networks of violent groups that traded resources and know-how, but did not necessarily have a central leadership, common motivations, or a shared agenda. To understand and cope with this threat landscape would require a multilateral and nuanced approach, in which states across Asia could work in partnership with the United States to develop comprehensive responses to an increasingly complex threat environment."--DTIC abstract.

Author: Ashwani Kumar
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811552282
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
The use of fossil fuels results in rising CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, causing global temperature rise and climate change that will negatively impact human health, the food supply, and eventually worsen hunger and misery. Presently, fossil fuels meet 88% of the energy demand, resulting in rising CO2/GHG emissions at alarming rates. The increased use of biofuels would help to mitigate climate change. Efficiently designing methods for the production of biofuels and plant-derived high-value products requires a deeper understanding of photosynthetic processes as a prerequisite for applying novel biotechnologies. Accordingly, this book provides ample information and a wealth of illustrative examples. The book’s eighteen richly illustrated chapters are divided into three thematic parts. I: Photosynthesis and Biomass Production under Changing Conditions, II: Microalgae and Engineered Crops for Production of Biofuels and High-value Products, and III: Genetic Resources and Engineering Methods to Improve Crop Plants. Readers will find the latest information on the molecular basis of photosynthetic processes in plants (including the regulatory principles that allow plants to maintain homeostasis under changing conditions), stress resistance and synthetic pathways. In addition, the basic principles of important biotechnologies, as well as examples of specially designed crops capable of growing under stress conditions with improved productivity, are presented. The book sets the course for future research in the field of biofuel development and production and provides both general and specific information for students, teachers, academic researchers, industrial teams, and general readers who are interested in new developments concerning the production of biofuels with value-added properties.