La racionalidad económica y las condiciones impuestas por el orden económico internacional han ocasionado la destrucción del patrimonio de recursos naturales; la problemática ambiental surge así de las estrategias de conocimientos y de poder que han determinado los procesos de producción y las formas de explotación de la naturaleza. Los ensayos de este libro hacen un aporte original a la concepción del ambiente como un espacio complejo de procesos interdependientes que articula las condiciones ecológicas, tecnológicas y culturales para fundar un potencial y un paradigma alternativo de producción para los países del tercer mundo.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the linkages among migration, development and environment undoubtedly belong to the most pressing issues on the political agenda. A special focus of this book is on two of these relations – on environmentally-induced migration and on the relationship between migration processes and development. The prime aim of the book is to contribute to and extend the current knowledge on these issues. How to define environmentally-induced migration? What are the differences between environmental and economic migrants? Is environmentally-induced migration forced or voluntary and what are the outcomes of selected regional field case-studies? ? How to classify environmental migrants? Where are the regional hot-spots of environmentally-induced migration? How to systematize the knowledge on migration policies? What are the impacts of skilled migration on development? What is the role of the transnationalism paradigm in the international migration research? Is international migration trade-diverting or creating? What is wrong with the effectiveness of development aid providing? Several prominent scholars and young researchers offer their answers to these challenges in the book.

The Routledge International Handbook of Higher Education for Sustainable Development gives a systematic and comprehensive overview of existing and upcoming research approaches for higher education for sustainable development. It provides a unique resource for researchers engaged in the field of higher education for sustainable development by connecting theoretical aspects of the range of relevant methodologies, showing the interdisciplinary aspects of the research field and illustrating the breadth of research directions. With a team of international authors from leading universities in research and teaching in higher education for sustainable development this Handbook brings together a broad range of research approaches and shows how these approaches are reflected in the research practice in higher education for sustainable development. Key topics include: Research Paradigms and Methodologies Ongoing and Future Directions of Research Meta-Analysis and Reviews Policy and Politics Challenges for Implementation Action Research and Transdisciplinary Perspective Gender, Diversity and Post-Colonial Perspectives Operationalising Competencies Outcome-Oriented Research Curriculum Change Organisational Change and Organisational Learning Community and Partnerships University Appraisal Systems and Indicators Evaluation Approaches Engaging Academic Teachers Good Practice Learning and Teaching Transformative Leadership and Change Strategies This Handbook is an invaluable research and teaching tool for all those working in higher education for sustainable development.

This book focuses on international migration and return of highly-skilled Ghanaians and Ivorians and presents empirical research findings that demonstrate that, under certain circumstances, return migrants can act as key development agents in their home country. It investigates the influence of a number of factors that condition their motivation to return and their capacity to stimulate change in their countries of origin. The aim of the study is the assessment of policy implications related to élite returnees’ development impact in evolving socio-economic contexts. The comparative and multi-method research strategy adopted revealed that migrants tend to return home with considerable savings (financial capital), new knowledge, skills and ideas (human capital), as well as with valuable contacts (social capital). Besides their level of education, work profile, and particular life experience, whether these migrants have worked abroad for a significant period, proved the most critical factor influencing their acquisition of different kinds of capital. However, there seems to be an ‘optimum’ work duration abroad – approximately five years – after which the benefits deriving from human and financial capital acquisition tend to stabilise. At the micro level, back home skilled migrants attained their goals, improving their relative income levels, expressing satisfaction with their work conditions and, more generally, enjoying a higher quality of life. At the meso level, they provided support to others in line with expectations and pressures they faced. They also introduced many kinds of new knowledge, skills and ideas in their workplace. At the macro level, return migrants promoted economic and political transformations through, among others, the creation of new businesses and various community development initiatives. The role of return migrants is influenced by many factors linked also to their situation back home. Reintegration into their home context proved challenging, especially for women, and returning migrants need time to overcome initial hurdles and get settled before they can start to make any meaningful contribution. That is one of the reasons why there is a need to facilitate their reintegration and create a conducive environment which can also foster return migration of the highly-skilled élite. More importantly, however, evidence is produced in favour of arguments and ideas about ‘brain circulation’, a strategy that can help in maximising the positive effects stemming from migration and return.

This book presents major texts by Prof. Dr. Lourdes Arizpe Schlosser, a pioneering Mexican anthropologist, on the occasion of her 70th birthday. She is a leading researcher into indigenous peoples, an innovator in women’s studies and a global scientific leader who has inspired the international research and policy communities. Throughout her distinguished career she has analysed ethnicism and indigenous peoples, women in migratory flows, cultural and social sustainability and intangible cultural heritage as social capital, placing these issues on the world agenda for research and policy. Several of the 12 major texts in this volume have been published since 1972 in the US, Europe, Latin America and India; some were first published in Spanish and are available in English for the first time. This anthology also includes recent unpublished texts on culture, development and international cultural policy delivered at high-level international meetings.