THE STORY: The scene is a country home in the Berkshire Mountains of New England, where three generations of the Whitaker/Frye family have gathered for the summer. Josephine Whitaker, the matriarch of the family, still bustles about energetically t

'The authors ...extend the reach of their comprehensive reviews into theoretically driven and innovating explorations. The scope of coverage across and within chapters is striking. The developmentalist, the methodologist, the feminist, the contextualist, and the cross-culturalist alike will find satisfaction in reading the chapters' - Catherine A Surra, University of Texas, Austin The science of close relationships is relatively new and complex. This volume has 26 chapters organized into four thematic areas: relationship methods, forms, processes, and threats, as well as a foreword and an epilogue.

Close Relationships: Functions, Forms and Processes provides an overview of current theory and research in the area of close relationships, written by internationally renowned scholars whose work is at the cutting edge of research in the field. The volume consists of three sections: introductory issues, types of relationships, and relationship processes. In the first section, there is an exploration of the functions and benefits of close relationships, the diversity of methodologies used to study them, and the changing social context in which close relationships are embedded. A second section examines the various types of close relationships, including family bonds and friendships. The third section focuses on key relationship processes, including attachment, intimacy, sexuality, and conflict. This book is designed to be an essential resource for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, and practitioners, and will be suitable as a resource in advanced courses dealing with the social psychology of close relationships.

This book develops and tests a typology of local state-society relations. To deliver such a comparative study on institutionalized relations between local government and societal actors at the municipal level in Europe, the book identifies and classifies country-specific patterns of these institutionalized governance networks. This work explores the diversity within these institutionalized networks, approaching it from a strong comparative perspective that is anchored on a new typology allowing a more robust analysis of the identifiable patterns. It is a study with appeal to scholars and students of local government, public administration and political science as well as to those pursuing this debate and implementing similar agendas as practitioners.

When people are facing difficulties, they often feel the need for a confidant-a person to vent to or a sympathetic ear with whom to talk things through. How do they decide on whom to rely? In theory, the answer seems obvious: if the matter is personal, they will turn to a spouse, a family member, or someone close. In practice, what people actually do often belies these expectations. In Someone To Talk To, Mario Luis Small follows a group of graduate students as they cope with stress, overwork, self-doubt, failure, relationships, children, health care, and poverty. He unravels how they decide whom to turn to for support. And he then confirms his findings based on representative national data on adult Americans. Small shows that rather than consistently relying on their "strong ties," Americans often take pains to avoid close friends and family, as these relationships are both complex and fraught with expectations. In contrast, they often confide in "weak ties," as the need for understanding or empathy trumps their fear of misplaced trust. In fact, people may find themselves confiding in acquaintances and even strangers unexpectedly, without having reflected on the consequences. Someone To Talk To reveals the often counter-intuitive nature of social support, helping us understand when people will keep depression secret from their close ones, why people may avoid reporting sexual assault, how people may decide whom to come out to, and why even competitors can be among a person's best confidants. Amid a growing wave of big data and large-scale network analysis, Small returns to the basic questions of whom we connect with, how, and why, upending decades of conventional wisdom on how we should think about and analyze social networks.

This book explores proofreading and editing from a variety of research and practitioner-led perspectives to describe, debate, and interrogate roles and policies within the student and research publication context. Chapters feature a wide range of empirical research findings gathered from an internationally diverse set of experts in the field from Australia, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, the UK, and the USA. The book progresses debates surrounding the legitimacy and necessity of copyeditors and proofreaders, drawing upon a range of theory and practice. Contributing to further research and dialogue in the area, the book addresses the ethicality and educative benefits of proofreading from various perspectives. Ultimately, the book offers vital discussions about the ethics and boundaries of proofreading and editing with experts sharing their experiences and recommendations for next steps. This book will be of relevance to postgraduate students, researchers and academics in the fields of literary studies, higher education, language arts, and applied linguistics. Teaching and learning professionals, policymakers, proofreaders, and editors can also benefit from the volume.

Focusing on Russia and Eastern Europe, Hall argues that democracies can preserve their norms and values by better understanding how authoritarian regimes learn. It will be of interest to scholars, advanced students, and policymakers concerned with the politics of authoritarianism, and the politics of Russia, and Central and Eastern Europe.