The Hollowing

A NOVEL IN THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD-WINNING MYTHAGO CYCLE Ryhope Wood, Mythago Wood, is the great forest steeped in mystery, whose heart contains secrets that change all who come there. Alex Bradley is a damaged and visionary child. Little does he know that the distorted creations of his mind are alive inside nearby Ryhope Wood. When the forest claims him, his father goes in pursuit, along with a scientific expedition looking for the secret of "mythago-genesis"... But inside Ryhope, Alex has created a hundred forms of the Trickster-all of them seeking their maker, and all of them deadly. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Data show that middle-income households have continued moving down, and less so up, the income distribution in the United States since the 1970s—a phenomenon that is often referred to as the polarization or “hollowing out” of the income distribution. While the level of income polarization is generally lower in the richer states (i.e., those with higher median household income levels), there have been wide variations in the changes in income polarization over time across states. The paper develops two indices to measure income polarization including a novel hollowing-out index. Another important contribution of the paper is to examine the proximate causes of income polarization. The econometric analysis is done at both state and household levels. The results suggest that technology, measured by job routinization, and international trade, measured by job offshoring, can fully explain the non-trend rise in income polarization, with broadly equal contributions. Household characteristics, including age, education, race, and gender have also been important drivers but with a net countervailing effect on income polarization. This is mainly thanks to the rising education level of households, which has led to better incomes.

Two sociologists reveal how small towns in Middle America are exporting their most precious resource—young people—and share what can be done to save these dwindling communities In 2001, with funding from the MacArthur Foundation, sociologists Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas moved to Iowa to understand the rural brain drain and the exodus of young people from America’s countryside. They met and followed working-class “stayers”; ambitious and college-bound “achievers”; “seekers,” who head off to war to see what the world beyond offers; and “returners,” who eventually circle back to their hometowns. What surprised them most was that adults in the community were playing a pivotal part in the town’s decline by pushing the best and brightest young people to leave. In a timely, new afterword, Carr and Kefalas address the question “so what can be done to save our communities?” They profile the efforts of dedicated community leaders actively resisting the hollowing out of Middle America. These individuals have creatively engaged small town youth—stayers and returners, seekers and achievers—and have implemented a variety of programs to combat the rural brain drain. These stories of civic engagement will certainly inspire and encourage readers struggling to defend their communities.

A classic account of democracy's crisis of legitimacy The age of party democracy has passed, argues Peter Mair in Ruling the Void. The major parties have become so disconnected from society that they no longer seem capable of sustaining democracy in its present form. First published in 2013, Ruling the Void presciently observed that the widening gap between citizens and their political leaders posed a crisis of legitimacy for the governing class, and was fuelling populist mobilizations against it. Europe’s political elites had remodelled themselves as a homogeneous professional class, withdrawing into state institutions that offer relative stability in a world of fickle voters. Meanwhile, non-democratic agencies and practices proliferated – not least among them the European Union itself. Mair weighs the impact of these changes, and offers an authoritative assessment of the prospects for popular political representation today, not only in the varied democracies of Britain and the EU but throughout the developed world. With a new Introduction by Chris Bickerton, author of The European Union: A Citizen’s Guide.

This book offers a systematic discussion and explanation on what industrial security is, what the influencing factors of industrial security are, how industrial security should be evaluated and how early warnings should work from the viewpoint of developing countries. Studying theories of industrial security is necessary for the development of industrial economics theory, innovations in industrial economy studies, and an important supplement to and improvement on the theories of industrial economics. Also, studying industrial security theories can offer valuable guidance for the practice of industrial economics and national industrial policy making.

These selected papers offer an overview of current knowledge in the fields of Renewable Energy and Building Energy Saving; Indoor Environments; City Ecological Environments; Water Purification and Wastewater Treatment; Air Environment Control and Architectural Environment Improvement Techniques; Road and Railway Engineering; Transportation Planning, Construction and Operation Organization; Bridge Engineering; Traffic Control and Information Technology; Carrier Operation Engineering. The volumes provide a comprehensive picture of the situation world wide.

The 2nd International Conference on Public Management, Digital Economy and Internet Technology (ICPDI 2023) was successfully held on 1-3 September 2023 in Chongqing, China. This conference aimed to bring together researchers, scholars, and practitioners from various fields to exchange ideas and discuss advancements in the areas of public management, digital economy, and internet technology. The conference featured a diverse range of research topics, including but not limited to Public Management, Digital Economy and Internet Technology. The conference fostered a rich and stimulating intellectual environment. The program included keynote speeches by renowned experts in the field, parallel sessions for paper presentations, and panel discussions addressing emerging trends and challenges. The conference proceedings showcased a wide array of research papers, providing valuable insights into the latest theoretical and practical developments in the field of public management, digital economy, and internet technology. Participants had the opportunity to engage in constructive discussions, offer feedback, and establish potential collaborations for future research endeavors. We extend our gratitude to all participants, presenters, organizers, and sponsors for their contributions in making this conference a resounding success. We look forward to the 3rd edition of this conference, where we can further explore the dynamic intersections of public management, digital economy, and internet technology.

Robert Holdstock was a prolific writer whose oeuvre included horror, fantasy, mystery and the novelization of films, often published under pseudonyms. These twelve critical essays explore Holdstock's varied output by displaying his works against the backdrop of folk and fairy tales, dissecting their spatiotemporal order, and examining them as psychic fantasies of our unconscious life or as exempla of the sublime. The individual novels of the Mythago Wood sequence are explored, as is Holdstock's early science fiction and the Merlin Codex series.