Relations 4 1 June 2016

Table of Contents: Past the Human: Narrative Ontologies and Ontological Stories. Editorial, Serenella Iovino, Roberto Marchesini, Eleonora Adorni - Posthumanism in Literature and Ecocriticism. Introduction, Serenella Iovino - From Posthumanism to Posthuman Ecocriticim, Serpil Oppermann - Threatening Animals?, Heather I. Sullivan - The Posthuman that Could Have Been: Mary Shelley’s Creature, Margarita Carretero González - Gadda’s Pasticciaccio and the Knotted Posthuman Household, Deborah Amberson, Elena Past - Posthuman Spaces of Relation: Literary Responses to the Species Boundary in Primate Literature, Diana Villanueva Romero - Can the Humanities Become Post-human? Interview with Rosi Braidotti, Cosetta Veronese - Recent Approaches in the Posthuman Turn: Braidotti, Herbrechter, and Nayar, Başak Ağın Dönmez - More-than-green Ecologies, Christopher Schliephake - Posthuman Narratives, Italian Style, Emiliano Guaraldo - Deep Breathing Ecocriticism: Stories, Matter, and Spiritual Dimensions, Alessandro Macilenti

The Asia-Pacific Development Journal (APDJ) is published twice a year by the Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. The primary objective of the APDJ is to provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge, experience, ideas, information and data on all aspects of economic and social development issues and concerns facing the region and aims to stimulate policy debate and assist in the formulation of policy. The development experience in the Asian and the Pacific region has stood out as an extraordinary example of what can be achieved when policymakers, experts, scholars and people at large harness their creativity, knowledge and foresight. The APDJ has been a proud partner in this process, providing a scholarly means for bringing together research work by eminent social scientists and development practitioners from the region and beyond for use by a variety of stakeholders. Over the years, the Journal has emerged as a key United Nations publication in telling the Asian development story in a concise, coherent and impartial manner to stimulate policy debate and assist in the formulation of policy in the region. This special issue contains five selected discussion papers, edited and revised, from the third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 13th to 16th July 2015. It highlights the importance of raising substantial financial resources various sources to invest in the social sectors, infrastructure development and efforts to tackle climate change in order to ensure a transformative change to bring about inclusive growth and sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. Two years later the Soviet Union disintegrated. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union discredited the idea of socialism for generations to come. It was seen as representing the final and irreversible victory of capitalism. This triumphal dominance was barely challenged until the 2008 financial crisis threw the Western world into a state of turmoil. Through analysis of post-socialist Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as of the United Kingdom, China and the United States, Socialism, Capitalism and Alternatives confronts the difficulty we face in articulating alternatives to capitalism, socialism and threatening populist regimes. Beginning with accounts of the impact of capitalism on countries left behind by the planned economies, the volume moves on to consider how China has become a beacon of dynamic economic growth, aggressively expanding its global influence. The final section of the volume poses alternatives to the ideological dominance of neoliberalism in the West. Since the 2008 financial crisis, demands for social change have erupted across the world. Exposing the failure of neoliberalism in the United Kingdom and examining recent social movements in Europe and the United States, the closing chapters identify how elements of past ideas are re-emerging, among them Keynesianism and radical socialism. As those chapters indicate, these ideas might well have potential to mobilise support and challenge the dominance of neoliberalism.

Focusing on literary language in popular media and performative venues, this book demonstrates how poetry is capable of meeting the challenges of calling out institutional entitlements and embodying change. Examining emergent communities, the author shows how contemporary poetry implicates itself in social and ecological relations or risks irrelevancy.

This annual Irish publication contains selected cases and materials relevant to Employment Law, specifically the case law and decisions that took place in Ireland throughout 2016. Practitioners need to be up to date and this annual publication provides that service. By being selective, and having that selection carried out by experienced lawyers, practitioners are pointed in the right direction. It will also be of great use to HR professionals and trade union officials who have need to reference this legal area. The title contains analysis and discussions on: - Irish law: decisions of the superior courts, Labour Court, Equality Tribunal, Employment Appeals Tribunal etc; - Irish legislation (including the Workplace Relations Act 2015) and statutory instruments; - English law so far as relevant e.g. common law decisions; - EU law: decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Communities and relevant Directives/Regulations; - Data protection and freedom of information developments - Other material such as Annual Reports of the EAT, the Labour Court, the Health & Safety Authority, the activities of NERA as well as decisions listed in other complementary areas of the law, including taxation and pensions. These have all been selected by experienced lawyers in the relevant fields. This title is part of a series that is released yearly, to reflect each year's particular case laws and decisions. This new edition covers the significant reforms under new Workplace Relations Act 2015, along with new chapters including: Employment Litigation: Preliminary Issues and Industrial Relations-A Changing Landscape. Last year's edition was winner of the 2015 Practical Law Book of the Year Award by the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association

Dramatic social transformation in Western society over recent decades has had a profound impact on the way the life course is studied. While people continue to experience the implications of class, gender, ethnicity and, of course, age, they are more than ever able to take personal control of their own lives. The Life Course considers how, in a diverse and uncertain world, the previously predictable stages of life are no longer fixed but increasingly open to change. Focusing on continuities and change, this book looks not only at the different 'phases of life', but also at the transformation of a number of closely related social institutions such as the family, education and the workplace. Recognising that the established cradle-to-grave view is now outdated, the trajectory from infancy and youth to later and end-of-life is followed not as a stable object of study, but as a starting point for critical analysis. This second edition offers an essential overview of the sociology of the life course, incorporating both contemporary and conventional perspectives. It calls upon current theorising around the life course as well as on up-to-date empirical research data. This thought-provoking text is relevant to researchers and students of life course studies and sociology, as well as to those in nursing, social work and related caring professions.

China has forty major transboundary watercourses with neighbouring countries, and has frequently been accused of harming its downstream neighbours through its domestic water management policies, such as the construction of dams for hydropower. This book provides an understanding of water security in Asia by investigating how shared water resources affect China’s relationships with neighbouring countries in South, East, Southeast and Central Asia. Since China is an upstream state on most of its shared transboundary rivers, the country’s international water policy is at the core of Asia’s water security. These water disputes have had strong implications for China’s interstate relations, and also influenced its international water policy alongside domestic concerns over water resource management. This book investigates China’s policy responses to domestic water crises and examines China’s international water policy as well as its strategy in dealing with international cooperation. The authors describe the key elements of water diplomacy in Asia which demonstrate varying degrees of effectiveness of environmental agreements. It shows how China has established various institutional arrangements with neighbouring countries, primarily in the form of bilateral agreements over hydrological data exchange. Detailed case studies are included of the Mekong, Brahmaputra, Ili and Amur rivers.