Uncertain Territories

Tracing and theorizing the concept of boundaries through literary works, visual objects and cultural phenomena, this book argues against the reification of boundaries as fixed and empty non-spaces that divide the world. The contributors elaborate on Boer's theme of boundaries as spaces where opposition yields to negotiation. Their analyses span diverse artefacts and media, ranging from literature to photography, to art installation and presentation, film and song. Fanning out from Boer's central focus - Orientalism - to other places of contestation, boundaries are described to mediate the relationship between self and other.

This book traces the sometimes bizarre and comical history of taxi regulations in Hong Kong. It compares the history of regulation changes to developments in the taxi business, including the rise and fall of the illegal taxi trade, the patterns of taxi accidents, malpractice complaints, and taxi license prices. The strange history of the market for taxi licenses shows that these regulations have been inconsistent, erratic and incomprehensible to people risking their money in the public auctions for licenses. In essence, this is an analysis of how people in the taxi business have studied the process of governmental regulation. The dispersion and volatility of taxi license auction prices, reveal the results of these studies and say more about their conclusions than any library of academic works will ever do.

The study of Cosmopolitanism has been transformed in the last 20 years and the subject itself has become highly discussed across the social sciences and the humanities. The Ashgate Research Companion to Cosmopolitanism pursues distinct theoretical orientations and empirical analyses, bringing together mainstream discussions with the newest thinking and developments on the main themes, debates and controversies surrounding the subject.

This Handbook explores the cognitive, motivational, interpersonal, clinical, and applied aspects of personal uncertainty. It showcases both the diversity and the unity that defines contemporary perspectives on uncertainty in self within social and personality psychology. The contributions to the volume are all written by distinguished scholars in personality, social psychology, and clinical psychology united by their common focus on the causes and consequences of self-uncertainty. Chapters explore the similarities and differences between personal uncertainty and other psychological experiences in terms of their nature and relationship with human thought, emotion, motivation, and behavior. Specific challenges posed by personal uncertainty and the coping strategies people develop in their daily life are identified. There is an assessment of the potential negative and positive repercussions of coping with the specific experience of self-uncertainty, including academic, health, and relationship outcomes. Throughout, strategies specifically designed to assist others in confronting the unique challenges posed by self-uncertainty in ways that emphasize healthy psychological functioning and growth are promoted. In addition, the contributions to the Handbook touch on the psychological, social, and cultural context of the new millennium, including concepts such as Friedman’s "flat world," confidence, the absence of doubt in world leaders, the threat of terrorism since 9/11, the arts, doubt and religious belief, and views of doubt as the universal condition of humankind. The Handbook is an invaluable resource for researchers, practitioners, and senior undergraduate and graduate students in social and personality psychology, clinical and counseling psychology, educational psychology, and developmental psychology.

This book, organised into 14 well-crafted chapters, charts the archaeology, folklore, heritage and landscape development of one of England's most enigmatic monuments, Old Oswestry Hillfort, from the Iron Age, through its inclusion as part of an early medieval boundary between England and Wales, to its role during World War I.

You don't have to be a change manager to be managing change. Written for managers, HR and OD professionals, this practical guide tells you everything you need to know to support effective business transformation. Managing Change in Organizations provides practical tips and examples on how to manage the people side of change as well as advice on how to engage staff and support them during times of business flux and uncertainty. There is also expert advice on how to ensure that all change activity in the company is aligned with the overall business goals whether this affects people, practices or processes. There is also expert guidance for HR, OD and management professionals on how to manage staff expectations, communicate change effectively and prioritize wellbeing during times of change. It includes practical tools which explain how to develop everyday activities to support the workforce through noticing, checking-in and navigating. Informed by the author's experience with both public and private sector organizations. this book is crucial reading for all HR and OD professionals as well as line managers needing to manage change in their organizations.

The Colonial World: A History of European Empires, 1780s to the Present provides the most authoritative, in-depth overview on European imperialism available. It synthesizes recent developments in the study of European empires and provides new perspectives on European colonialism and the challenges to it. With a post-1800 focus and extensive background coverage tracing the subject to the early 1700s, the book charts the rise and eclipse of European empires. Robert Aldrich and Andreas Stucki integrate innovative approaches and findings from the 'new imperial history' and look at both the colonial era and the legacies it left behind for countries around the world after they gained independence. Dividing the text into three complementary sections, Aldrich and Stucki offer an original approach to the subject that allows you to explore: - Different eras of colonisation and decolonisation from early modern European colonialism to the present day - Overarching themes in colonial history, like 'land and sea', 'the body' and 'representations of colonialism' - A global range of snapshot colonial case studies, such as Peru (1780), India (1876), The South Pacific (1903), the Dutch East Indies (1938) and the Portuguese empire in Africa (1971) This is the essential text for anyone seeking to understand the nature and complexities of modern European imperialism and its aftermath.

The narrative spell cast over politics and society Politics is no longer the art of the possible, but of the fictive. Its aim is not to change the world as it exists, but to affect the way that it is perceived. In Storytelling Christian Salmon looks at the twenty-first-century hijacking of creative imagination, anatomizing the timeless human desire for narrative form, and how this desire is abused by the marketing mechanisms that bolster politicians and their products: luxury brands trade on embellished histories, managers tell stories to motivate employees, soldiers in Iraq train on Hollywood-conceived computer games, and spin doctors construct political lives as if they were a folk epic. This “storytelling machine” is masterfully unveiled by Salmon, and is shown to be more effective and insidious as a means of oppression than anything dreamed up by Orwell.