Big Issues

Students can explore important contemporary issues through drama and discussion using these original short scripts and sketches written especially for this collection. Accompanying activities provide links to the Framework for teaching English.

In a world grappling with seemingly insurmountable challenges like systemic corruption, elitism, and chronic inequality, this book is a beacon of hope and a wellspring of practical solutions. Brimming with real-world examples and actionable insights, this remarkable anthology equips readers with the knowledge and inspiration needed to ignite transformative change. The book explores topics as awesome as world development, as sordid as extortion, as vital as cultural responsiveness, as intimidating as racial inequalities. Its settings stretch from Harvard to the Himalayas, from the corridors of power to the backwaters of poor places. What binds together its diverse topics is the author’s belief in the possibility of simultaneously being humane and analytical, of dealing with both ultimate goals and concrete choices. Tailored to resonate with policymakers, activists, and scholars alike, this anthology’s global scope and unwavering focus on positive and practical solutions make it an indispensable addition to any collection.

Small Canadian cities confront serious social issues as a result of the neoliberal economic restructuring practiced by both federal and provincial governments since the 1980s. Drastic spending reductions and ongoing restraint in social assistance, income supports, and the provision of affordable housing, combined with the offloading of social responsibilities onto municipalities, has contributed to the generalization of social issues once chiefly associated with Canada’s largest urban centres. As the investigations in this volume illustrate, while some communities responded to these issues with inclusionary and progressive actions others were more exclusionary and reactive—revealing forms of discrimination, exclusion, and “othering” in the implementation of practices and policies. Importantly, however their investigations reveal a broad range of responses to the social issues they face. No matter the process and results of the proposed solutions, what the contributors uncovered were distinctive attributes of the small city as it struggles to confront increasingly complex social issues. If local governments accept a social agenda as part of its responsibilities, the contributors to Small Cities, Big Issues believe that small cities can succeed in reconceiving community based on the ideals of acceptance, accommodation, and inclusion.

Explores dangers and problems that girls face today, including cutting, cyberbullying, substance abuse, learning disabilities, and social anxiety, with information on intervention and coping strategies.

Dive into some of the big issues facing New Zealand with this bundle of hard-hitting BWB Texts. These four works are combined into one easy-to-read e-book, available direct and DRM-free from our website or from international e-book retailers. Tracey Barnett’s The Quiet War on Asylum addresses a big question: Why would New Zealand, a country that has never had a boatload of asylum arrivals in modern history, suddenly legislate for mass detention? Jane Kelsey looks hard at the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and the impact it may have on New Zealand if enacted. The penetrating discussion of the dramatic transformation in penal thought in New Zealand, and the lasting damage it has caused, is revealed in John Pratt’s A Punitive Society. Robert Wade’s tour of New Zealand in 2013 caused headlines and Inequality and the West places the local inequality debate against a global backdrop. BWB Texts are short books on big subjects by great New Zealand writers. Commissioned as short digital-first works, BWB Texts unlock diverse stories, insights and analysis from the best of our past, present and future New Zealand writing.

What would the great founders of modern sociology have to say about happiness, modern capitalism, generation rent or pop music? What were their ideas about? Back For the Future introduces the concept of sociological investigation and describes the theoretical approaches of Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber in the context of their times and through the big challenges in society today. The book discusses world happiness research, the internet and 'glocalisation', sexual freedom and gender, 'collective effervescence', modern capitalism, the ever-present bureaucratic model of management in society, social behaviour and cognitive bias amongst many other topics in today's world. You even get fine art samples, a fun puzzle and a great You Tube link to illustrate the ideas! In reader testing Back for the Future was highly rated as an introductory reader, a teaching and learning aid and as a student text that cuts across disciplinary boundaries.

With the proliferation of devices connected to the internet and connected to each other, the volume of data collected, stored, and processed is increasing every day, which brings new challenges in terms of information security. As big data expands with the help of public clouds, traditional security solutions tailored to private computing infrastructures and confined to a well-defined security perimeter, such as firewalls and demilitarized zones (DMZs), are no longer effective. New security functions are required to work over the heterogenous composition of diverse hardware, operating systems, and network domains. Security, Privacy, and Forensics Issues in Big Data is an essential research book that examines recent advancements in big data and the impact that these advancements have on information security and privacy measures needed for these networks. Highlighting a range of topics including cryptography, data analytics, and threat detection, this is an excellent reference source for students, software developers and engineers, security analysts, IT consultants, academicians, researchers, and professionals.