In the current postmodern reality where society is no longer viewed as a totality but as a collection of individual interests, public space both as a physical and symbolic space, has no determined contours and the public sphere is likely to take new forms. Yet as a crucial principle of democracy, public space will continue to feed discussions as long as models of participatory democracy represent the guarantor of good governance and the preservation of the public good. Ranging from architecture, sociology, to literary criticism and women and gender studies, the essays that compose this collection have as a common denominator the idea of public space as a vital aspect of public life in modern as well as in developing and traditional societies. Placing themselves beyond the relentless theoretical debates around the concept of public space, the authors agree that no matter what forms it takes, public space remains a fundamental aspect of even those societies that until recently were viewed as hermetically sealed. What emerges from the different perspectives included in this book is a general consensus that the symbolic value of the physical public space is grounded in the collective socio-political consciousness as the basis for a general sense of civic action.

Business is increasingly becoming global in its scope, orientation and strategic intent. This book by a renowned author provides a comprehensive yet concise exposition of the salient features, trends and intricacies of international business. The subject matter is presented in a lucid and succinct style so that even those who do not have a basic knowledge of the subject can easily understand it. The text is enriched and made more interesting by a number of illustrative diagrams, tables and insightful boxes of examples. Another significant feature is the profuse references to Indian contexts and examples. NEW TO THE EDITION The seventh edition of the book is characterised by: • Restructuring of the contents making it concise • Revision of data and illustrations • Addition of latest information and revisions in the chapters, wherever necessary • Introduction of two new case studies on ‘Globalization of Pop Culture’ and ‘Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs of P&G’, besides updating the remaining cases TARGET AUDIENCE • MBA • B.Com and M.Com • MA Economics

The study of foreign policy is usually concerned with the interaction of states, and thus with governance structures which emerged either with the so-called 'Westphalian system' or in the course of the 18th century: diplomacy and international law. As a result, examining foreign policy in earlier periods involves conceptual and terminological difficulties, which echo current debates on 'post-national' foreign policy actors like the European Union or global cities. This volume argues that a novel understanding of what constitutes foreign policy may offer a way out of this problem. It considers foreign policy as the outcome of processes that make some boundaries different from others, and set those that separate communities in an internal space apart from those that mark foreignness. The creation of such boundaries, which can be observed at all times, designates specific actors - which can be, but do not have to be, 'states' - as capable of engaging in foreign policy. As such boundaries are likely to be contested, they are unlikely to provide either a single or a simple distinction between 'insides' and 'outsides'. In this view, multiple layers of foreign-policy actors with different characteristics appear less as a modern development and more as a perennial aspect of foreign policy. In a broad perspective stretching from early Greek polities to present-day global cities, the volume offers a theoretical and empirical presentation of this concept by political scientists, jurists, and historians.

Bringing together contributions from leading labour market policy scholars from across the globe, this state-of-the-art Handbook offers extensive and compelling analyses of labour market policy in advanced democracies. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

Diane Stone addresses the network alliances or partnerships of international organisations with knowledge organisations and networks. Moving beyond more common studies of industrial public-private partnerships, she addresses how, and why, international organisations and global policy actors need to incorporate ideas, expertise and scientific opinion into their 'global programmes'. Rather than assuming that the encouragement for 'evidence-informed policy' in global and regional institutions of governance is an indisputable public good, she queries the influence of expert actors in the growing number of part-private or semi-public policy networks.

Global policy making is unfurling in distinctive ways above traditional nation-state policy processes. New practices of transnational administration are emerging inside international organizations but also alongside the trans-governmental networks of regulators and inside global public private partnerships. Mainstream policy and public administration studies have tended to analyse the capacity of public sector hierarchies to globalize national policies. By contrast, this Handbook investigates new public spaces of transnational policy-making, the design and delivery of global public goods and services, and the interdependent roles of transnational administrators who move between business bodies, government agencies, international organizations, and professional associations. This Handbook is novel in taking the concepts and theories of public administration and policy studies to get inside the black box of global governance. Transnational administration is a multi-actor and multi-scalar endeavour having manifestations, depending on the policy issue or problems, at the local, urban, sub-regional, sub-national, regional, national, supranational, supra-regional, transnational, international, and global scales. These scales of 'local' and 'global' are not neatly bounded and nested spaces but are articulated together in complex patterns of policy activity. These transnational patterns represent a reinvigoration of public administration and policy studies as the Handbook authors advance their analysis beyond the methodological nationalism of the nation-state.

If the importance of globalization were judged by the volume of discussion it has generated, it would surely be a concept of fundamental importance in the contemporary world. And yet, as a concept, globalization is often indigestible, meaning different things to different people, and remaining obscure in its connotations. A virtue of this volume of essays is that the phenomena of globalization are made more approachable by being divided into five discrete themes, each of which forms part of the overall concept and each of which has important implications for policy decisions at the international, regional, and national levels. By differentiating the concept in this way -- into the production of global knowledge, the provision of global public goods, the global trade system, global foreign aid, and global governance -- the analysis is sharpened in an illuminating and stimulating manner. At the same time, the editors, Drs Violetta Zentai and Andrea Krizsan, provide a masterly introductory essay that shows how the various parts make up the whole. The fact that the book is a product of an international conference held at the Central European University shortly after September 11 in 2001, adds a layer to its significance. The Center for Policy Studies at the Central European University and its collaborators deserve praise for such a thorough and timely analysis of these various strands of globalization. Book jacket.