These are powerful times. Fundamental change is around the corner, but the concrete manifestations are unpredictable. Past trends will, less than ever, be a reliable orientation for desirable action. Adopting familiar game plans, reinforcing standard procedures and implementing strategies which were successful in the good old days of the second half of the 20th century are no longer a guarantee for an adequate solution. And even if they seem to alleviate a problem in the short term, they may lay the roots for failure in the longer term.What is needed in such a situation is the enhancement of resilience to facilitate the absorption of the unexpected and the unforeseeable; strengthening of the capacity to adjust innovatively and flexibly to rapidly changing political, economic, social and technological circumstances; and, in the political arena, to stretch what interest groups and the public believe is socially acceptable and thus politically feasible. This is the lesson to be learned from the 2,000 year long history of globalisation and the story of one city, Hamburg, which for 1,000 years has successfully remained on the side of the winners.

Regions and cities are the natural loci where knowledge is created, and where it can be easily turned into a commercial product. This book explains the logic behind the interactions and cooperative attitudes in regions and cities, with a particular focus on the importance of academic institutions in fostering development.

The Earth System may be the most complex entity that ever emerged in our galaxy and the contemporary process of 'globalisation' may be the most intricate dynamics that will ever pervade that entity: it is the interactive co-evolution of millions of technological, cultural, economic, social and environmental trends at all conceivable spatiotemporal scales that brings about the present fundamental transformation of humanity’s way of life. In this text the authors make the heroic effort to tame the complexity of modern planetary development by the intellectual concept of 'transition'. In this work, four major issues are discussed that are of global importance: developments related to two of our key natural resources; water and biodiversity; the health of human populations; and the developments related to global tourism.

Presents a discussion of recent trends and prospects in science, technology and industry, based on comparative indicators, such as output, investment and productivity, research and development (R&D), patent activity and innovation and knowledge flows.

Globalization and Social Change takes a refreshing new perspective on globalization and widening social and spatial inequalities. Diane Perrons draws on ideas about the new economy, risk society, welfare regimes and political economy to explain the growing social and spatial divisions characteristic of our increasingly divided world. Combining original argument with a clear exposition of the underlying processes, Perrons illustrates her points through a series of case studies linking people in rich and poor countries. She places strong emphasis on the socio-economic aspects of change, particularly changes in working patterns and living arrangements, and makes reference to the new global division of labour, declining industrial regions and widening social divisions within what she terms 'superstar regions'. Wide in scope, this new study also focuses on changing family structures, the feminization of employment, migration, work life balance and new conceptions of gender identity and gender roles. Diane Perrons' enlightening book concludes that divisions by social class and gender are in some ways becoming more significant than divisions between nations, and suggests that new systems of social and economic organization are necessary for social peace in the new millennium.

This book takes you on a journey through post-crisis regulatory reform, highlighting the unintended consequences of some of the measures on transaction banking, a business that provides the backbone of financial markets.