The book is a cross-section of the over all Italian development. Italy can be considered a microcosm that contains all the imbalances and territorial differences that can be observed in the European macro-areas. Its north can now be considred integrated with the more developed European continental shelf. The Centre represents a local development in transition to a more visible technological change. The late south risks accumulating more socio-economic backwardness. For these reasons, we believe this volume is useful, with just a few pages presenting one of the most interesting cases of local industrial development, outside the mainstream of the industrial economy which saw in Fordism and Taylorism the best way for industrializaion. Here, on the contrary, it is argued that big fish cannot always consume the smallest one that flickers faster and its flexibility, that has social roots, can be an advantage in global markets. Technology appears to be the key to the future. Please note: This title is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives or Bhutan)

The book is a cross-section of the over all Italian development. Italy can be considered a microcosm that contains all the imbalances and territorial differences that can be observed in the European macro-areas. Its north can now be considred integrated with the more developed European continental shelf. The Centre represents a local development in transition to a more visible technological change. The late south risks accumulating more socio-economic backwardness. For these reasons, we believe this volume is useful, with just a few pages presenting one of the most interesting cases of local industrial development, outside the mainstream of the industrial economy which saw in Fordism and Taylorism the best way for industrializaion. Here, on the contrary, it is argued that big fish cannot always consume the smallest one that flickers faster and its flexibility, that has social roots, can be an advantage in global markets. Technology appears to be the key to the future. Please note: This title is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives or Bhutan)

This book examines federalism and regional and local politics in Russia. Many commentators have alluded to the unique nature of Russia's dual transition and its difficult task of simultaneously reforming its economy and polity. But there is in fact a third transition under way in Russia that is of no less importance, the need to reconfigure central-local relations and to create a stable and viable form of federalism. Federal states are much more difficult to set up than unitary ones, and forging a new federal system at the same time as privatising the economy and trying to radically overhaul the political system has clearly made Russia's transition triply difficult. The book discusses how Vladimir Putin has re-asserted the power of the centre in Russia, and tightened the federal government's control of the regions. It shows how, contrary to his rhetoric about developing Russia as a free and democratic state, authoritarianism has been extended - through his reorganisation of the Federation Council, his usurpation of powers to dismiss regional assemblies and chief executives, and his creation of seven unelected super-governors. The book explores a wide range of issues related to these developments, including a comparative study of Russian federalism and local politics, ethnic federalism, the merging of federal units, regional governors, electoral and party reforms, and regional and local politics. It also includes case studies of local and regional politics in specific regions.

The social history of business leaders has always been considered as an essential ingredient in the understanding of business performance. It has nevertheless remained comparatively neglected by scholars.

Dynamics of entrepreneurship have attracted growing attention from scholars of political science, policy studies, public administration and planning, as well as more recently, from the realms of international relations and foreign policy analysis. Under the banner of political entrepreneurship, this volume considers and maps out conceptual approaches to the study of entrepreneurship drawn from these fields, discusses synergies, envisages new analytical tools and offers contemporary empirical case studies, illustrating the diverse political contexts in which entrepreneurship takes place in the polis. Drawing upon an international cast of senior academics and cutting edge young researchers, the volume takes a closer look at key aspects of political entrepreneurship, such as, defining political entrepreneurs, how it relates to change, decision-making and strategies, organizational arrangements, institutional rules, varying contexts and future research agendas. By highlighting the political aspects of entrepreneurship, the volume presents new exciting opportunities for understanding entrepreneurial activities at regional, national and international levels. The volume will be of particular relevance to scholars and students of political science, policy studies, public administration, planning, international relations and business studies as well as practitioners interested in the nexus and utility of entrepreneurship in the modern-day political world.

Polycentric Governance and the Good Society: A Normative and Philosophical Investigation offers an examination of the idea of polycentric governance as one of the pillars of a flourishing human society. Rather than following the conventional path of suppressing complexity and diversity for the sake of reaching agreement on justice and political stability, David Thunder and Pablo Paniagua see complexity and diversity as assets that should be leveraged to make the "Open Society" a more prosperous, resilient, and flourishing place to live. Polycentric Governance and the Good Society provides valuable food for thought for academics and students looking for a probing, cross-disciplinary discussion of the ethos and institutions of liberal democracy under conditions of social pluralism. Although the volume includes diverse disciplinary lenses, such as public choice theory, MacIntyrean social theory, and constitutional law, the driving concern is to exhibit the potential advantages of polycentric approaches to governance and social coordination for constructing a feasible and morally attractive social order. This is the first extended academic work to explore in depth the advantages, not only from an economic and organizational standpoint but also from a broader ethical, sociological, and anthropological perspective, of polycentric governance arrangements.

This collection provides a critical reexamination of the development and current status of comparative literature studies that engage the literary practices of both China and the West. In so doing, it attempts to refashion literary methodologies and cultural theories in Chinese studies and reread several noncanonical texts in ways that cut across disciplines, genders, and modernities. Eschewing conventional taxonomies such as the study of literary influences and parallels, this volume shifts the emphasis from Chinese-Western comparativism to a critical rereading of Chinese or China-related texts using a variety of new critical approaches. Essays that draw on literary history, comparative poetics, modernist aesthetics, feminist studies, gender theory, and postcolonial discourse exemplify how multifaceted approaches can enrich our understanding of this field. The essays are grouped in three parts: studies of disciplines, institutions, and canon formation; gender, sexuality, and the body; and technology, modernity, and aesthetics. They cover a range of subjects, including the challenge of East-West comparative literature, the impact of literary theory on Sinological research, canon formation in traditional Chinese poetry, gender and sexuality in Ming drama, contemporary Chinese fiction and television drama, the problem of translation, the influence of science fiction, and the "cult of poetry” in post-Mao China. The introductory chapter traces the rise of the Chinese school of comparative literature and addresses the issues facing Western scholars of Chinese-Western comparative literature. A concluding chapter summarizes recent remappings of the geocultural world and outlines future possibilities for comparative literature.