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Structuring the Thesis: Matching Method, Paradigm, Theories and Findings
by David Kember Michael CorbettThe book is a collective investigation of the structuring of theses in education, the social sciences and other disciplines that commonly do not follow the standard procedures of the scientific method. To help research students design a structure for their own thesis and liberate their investigations from the constraints associated with the use of the conventional structure, it explains how the structures adopted were designed to suit the topic, methodology and paradigm. It also provides a wide range of examples to draw upon, which suit a broad spectrum of theory, methodological approaches, research methods and paradigms. Additionally, by analyzing the methodologies and paradigms, and reviewing the methodological and paradigmatic spectrum, it offers a significant contribution to the way research is conceptualized.The book addresses a number of key questions faced by students, supervisors and examiners: •Why do examiners often find it difficult to read work in non-scientific disciplines when theses are structured in accordance with the conventional scientific method?•Why do students in non-scientific disciplines struggle to write up the outcomes of their research in the conventional structure?•What alternative thesis structures can be devised to better suit the wide range of methods?•Which theories and paradigms are commonly followed in education and the social sciences and how do these perspectives influence the research process? •What methods, theories and paradigms are commonly adopted by education and social science students and what problems do these pose when students write their theses?
Human-Earth System Dynamics: Implications to Civilizations
by Rongxing GuoThis book explores the factors and mechanisms that may have influenced the dynamic behaviors of earliest civilizations, focusing on both environmental (geographic) factors on which traditional historic analyses are based and human (behavioral) factors on which anthropological analyses are usually based. It also resurrects a number of common ancestral terms to help readers understand the complicated process of human and cultural evolution around the globe. Specifically, in almost all indigenous languages, the words ‘wa’ and any variants of it were originally associated with the sound of crying of – and certainly were selected as the common ancestral word with the meanings of “house, home, homeland, motherland, and so on” by – early humans living in different parts of the world.This book provides many neglected but still crucial environmental and biological clues about the rise and fall of civilizations – ones that have largely resulted from mankind’s long-lasting “Win-Stay Lose-Shift” games throughout the world. The narratives and findings presented at this book are unexpected but reasonable – and are what every student of anthropology or history needs to know and doesn't get in the usual text.“Professor Guo explores the dynamics of civilizations from the beginnings to our perplexingly complex world. There are lots of thought-provoking ideas here on the rise and decline of civilizations and nations... Anyone wishing to understand global developments should give this book serious consideration.” ----John Komlos, University of Munich, Germany, and Duke University, USA“It is interesting to see a Chinese perspective on the questions of deep history that have engaged Jared Diamond, Yuval Harari and David Christian. Guo argues that understanding cyclical threats has been the key to human progress, which is driven by the dialectic of material privation and human ingenuity.” ----Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University, USA
African Womanhood and Incontinent Bodies: Kenyan Women with Vaginal Fistulas
by Kathomi GatwiriThis book reveals the structures of poverty, power, patriarchy and imperialistic health policies that underpin what the World Health Organization calls the “hidden disease” of vaginal fistulas in Africa. By employing critical feminist and post-colonial perspectives, it shows how “leaking black female bodies” are constructed, ranked, stratified and marginalised in global maternal health care, and explains why women in Africa are at risk of developing vaginal fistulas and then having adequate treatment delayed or denied. Drawing on face-to-face, in-depth interviews with 30 Kenyan women, it paints a rare social portrait of the heartbreaking challenges for Kenyan women living with this most profound gender-related health issue – an experience of shame, taboo and abjection with severe implications for women’s wellbeing, health and sexuality. In absolutely groundbreaking depth, this book shows why research on vaginal fistulas must incorporate feminist understandings of bodily experience to inform future practices and knowledge.
Poverty, Chronic Poverty and Poverty Dynamics: Policy Imperatives
by Aasha Kapur Mehta Shashanka Bhide Anand Kumar Amita ShahThis book discusses critical policy issues that need to be addressed if India wishes to achieve the SDG 1 based elusive goal of ending poverty in the country. In its nine chapters, it takes the readers through trends and estimates of poverty in India, explains changes in the way it has been measured over time and the factors that lead to persistence of poverty, draws attention to the fact that hunger is both a cause and an effect of poverty and has gender and age dimensions too. The book revisits strategies that were successful in addressing poverty emanating from situations of conflict, presents a discussion on migration as a critical coping mechanism among poor, analyses the links between ill health and poverty as well as education and poverty to draw attention to the policy imperatives that need attention.India’s report card on poverty remains dismal even though there is recognition of the importance of reducing or eliminating or ending it at both national and global levels. Despite rapid economic growth and improvement on a range of development indicators, an unacceptably high proportion of India’s population continues to suffer poverty in multiple dimensions. SDG 1 or “ending poverty in all its forms everywhere” cannot be achieved unless policies and poverty alleviation programmes understand and address chronic poverty and its dynamics. This requires that we estimate and understand the extent of poverty, the factors that lead to people getting stuck in it and the ways this can be addressed. It also requires understanding the dynamic nature of poverty or the fact that many of those who are poor are able to move out of poverty as well as the fact that many others who are not poor become impoverished. These are the issues that are comprehensively examined and addressed in this book.In addition to students, teachers and researchers in the areas of development, economic growth, equity and welfare, the book is also of great interest to policy makers, planners and non‐government agencies who are concerned with understanding and addressing poverty-related issues in the developing countries.
Big Data Applications and Services 2017: The 4th International Conference on Big Data Applications and Services (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing #770)
by Wookey Lee Carson K. LeungThis proceedings volume contains selected papers from the Fourth International Conference on Big Data Applications and Services (BigDAS 2017), held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on August 15-18, 2017. Big data has become a core technology providing innovative solutions in many fields including social media, healthcare and manufacturing. The Fourth International Conference on Big Data Applications and Services (BigDAS 2017) presented innovative results, encouraged academic and industrial interaction, and promoted collaborative research in the field of big data worldwide. The conference was organized by the Korea Big Data Services Society and National University of Uzbekistan.
Incarcerated Youth Transitioning Back to the Community: International Perspectives
by Sue C. O’NeillThis book offers a broad overview of transition practices for incarcerated youth, shaped by local culture, politics, ideologies, and philosophies. It highlights the similarities and differences in international approaches, as well as promising practices. The book is divided into two sections: Section One presents a synthesis of the current research on essential areas shown to promote successful transitions for incarcerated youth, using the Taxonomy for Transition Programming 2.0 as a cohesive framework, Section Two focuses on national perspectives on topical issues impacting local transition practices and/or policy. It provides information pertaining to the respective countries and a summary of key facets of their juvenile justice system, including successful or promising approaches and programs used in transition. This book benefits academics and researchers from a broad range of fields, policy makers and leadership teams from various agencies, associations, and government departments with an interest in juvenile and youth justice, social work, and special education courses on transition planning.
Health Care Transformation in Contemporary China: Moral Experience in a Socialist Neoliberal Polity
by Jiong TuThis multifaceted book examines the free market reform of the Chinese healthcare system in the 1980s and the more collectivist or socialist counter-reforms that have been implemented since 2009 to remedy some of the problems introduced by marketization. The book is based on an ethnographical study in a Chinese county from 2011 to 2012, which investigated local people’s experience of healthcare reforms and the various ways in which they have adapted their own behavior to the constraints and opportunities introduced by these reforms. It provides a vivid depiction of the morality and emotionality of people’s experiences of the Chinese healthcare system and the myriad frustrations and sometimes desperation it induces not only among patients with significant health problems and their families, but also healthcare practitioners caught between their desire to do right by their patients and the penalties they personally incur if they do not adhere to institutionalized cost-saving measures. The people’s experiences within China’s health sector presented reflect many similar experiences in the wider Chinese society. The book is thus a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students interested in China’s healthcare reforms and scholars concerned with issues of contemporary Chinese society.
Journalistic Stance in Chinese and Australian Hard News
by Changpeng HuanAdopting a multi-perspective ontological approach to language in social life, this book investigates the concept of journalistic stance, defining it as a nexus of social practice rather than simply linguistic realizations. It focuses on the discursive aspect of journalistic stance in news texts to analyse the ways journalistic stances are enacted in Chinese and Australian print-media, hard-news reporting. Further, using the appraisal framework, it identifies stance markers in news texts and examines the social-institutional and (inter)personal aspects of journalistic stance on the basis of insights gained from participant observation in news institutions in order to understand news-production processes. It also highlights the articulation of news values and the exercise of symbolic power in each news-production context. This book appeals to a wide range of researchers, such as discourse analysts in the field of news discourse and other scholars whose research is relevant to stance/evaluation, and those engaged in corpus-informed studies, along with those in the field journalism and communication.
Social Media in China (Sociology, Media and Journalism in China)
by Wenbo Kuang Hang Jiang Ying Zhang Quanli Wang Mifen YangRedefining the concept of new media in China, this cutting edge book discusses the impact of social media on Chinese public life. Examining its characteristics and the different forms of social media, such as internet and mobile phone media, weibo, wechat and micro-blogging, it considers how public opinion evolves through this media and its interaction with traditional media. It also offers a unique analysis of growing new media platforms, the challenges of government management and the impact of micro-blogging on journalism in China. Through quantitative research, the book also analyses new media user behavior in China, offering a ‘butterfly effect’ model for public opinion based on new media. It also shows the relevance of the sociological Matthew Effect and addresses issues such as the ‘20 million’ phenomenon and the Internet Water army (Wangluo shuijun), groups of Internet ghost-writers paid to post specific content online. Finally, it scrutinizes the the issue of mass disturbance in new media in China, researching evolutionary mechanisms and academic models of mass disturbance through a series of case studies.Written by a leader in the field of Chinese new media, this book constitutes a valuable read to scholars of media and communications studies, and all those interested by the development and the increasing impact of new media in China.
Social Media in China (Sociology, Media and Journalism in China)
by Wenbo Kuang Hang Jiang Ying Zhang Quanli Wang Mifen YangRedefining the concept of new media in China, this cutting edge book discusses the impact of social media on Chinese public life. Examining its characteristics and the different forms of social media, such as internet and mobile phone media, weibo, wechat and micro-blogging, it considers how public opinion evolves through this media and its interaction with traditional media. It also offers a unique analysis of growing new media platforms, the challenges of government management and the impact of micro-blogging on journalism in China. Through quantitative research, the book also analyses new media user behavior in China, offering a ‘butterfly effect’ model for public opinion based on new media. It also shows the relevance of the sociological Matthew Effect and addresses issues such as the ‘20 million’ phenomenon and the Internet Water army (Wangluo shuijun), groups of Internet ghost-writers paid to post specific content online. Finally, it scrutinizes the the issue of mass disturbance in new media in China, researching evolutionary mechanisms and academic models of mass disturbance through a series of case studies.Written by a leader in the field of Chinese new media, this book constitutes a valuable read to scholars of media and communications studies, and all those interested by the development and the increasing impact of new media in China.
Understanding Communication Research Methods: A Theoretical and Practical Approach
by Stephen M. Croucher Daniel Cronn-MillsUsing an engaging how-to approach that draws from scholarship, real-life, and popular culture, this textbook offers students practical reasons why they should care about research methods and a guide to actually conducting research themselves. Examining quantitative, qualitative, and critical research methods, this new edition helps undergraduate students better grasp the theoretical and practical uses of method by clearly illustrating practical applications. The book features all the main research traditions within communication including online methods, and provides level-appropriate applications of the methods through theoretical and practical examples and exercises, including new sample student papers that demonstrate research methods in action.
The Realizations of the Self
by Andrea Altobrando Takuya Niikawa Richard StoneRecent discussions of self-realization have devolved into unscientific theories of self-help. However, this vague and often misused concept is connected to many important individual and social problems. As long as its meaning remains unclear, it can be abused for social, political, and commercial malpractices. To combat this issue, this book shares perspectives from scholars of various philosophical traditions. Each chapter takes new steps in asking what the meaning of self-realization is–both in terms of what it means to understand who or what one is, and also in terms of how one can, or should, fulfilll oneself. The conceptual elucidations achieved from both theoretical and practical perspectives allow for a more mature awareness of how to deal with discourses on self-realization and, in any case, can help to demystify the subject.
Migration and Empire, 1830-1939 (New Higher History)
by Simon WoodThe New Higher History series offers a full-colour, topic-based approach to the revised Higher History syllabus. Covering all of the main issues within each topic area, this series includes investigative techniques, use of evidence and a variety of activities to enable students to develop the necessary skills to tackle both essay-based and source-based questions successfully. New Higher History: Migration and Empire 1830-1939 provides comprehensive coverage of this source-based Unit offered in Paper 2 of the course. The core issues within the topic are fully explored, preparing students for the short response questions in the external examination. This book investigates the population movement and social and economic change in Scotland and abroad, looking at: - the development of industrialisation and urbanisation in Scotland due to economic changes - the impact of economic, social, cultural and political factors on internal migration and emigration and whether these were push or pull factors - the immigrant experience, arising issues of identity and the reaction of Scots to their arrival, in particular the Irish (Protestant and Catholic), Jewish, Lithuanian and Italian migrants - Scotland's economic, cultural and religious impact on the empire nations due to immigration to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India in particular - the impact of migration and empire on Scotland by 1939 and the social, cultural and economic changes which resulted - the significance of migration and empire for Scottish identity.
Class, Culture and Belonging in Rural Childhoods (Perspectives on Children and Young People #7)
by Rose ButlerThis book explores how rural children negotiate economic insecurity and difference. Based on long-term ethnographic research in rural Australia, it shows that children draw on class-based ideas of moral worth, anchored in racialised and gendered understandings, to negotiate financial hardship and insecurity. Through close observations in the classroom, school yard and the home, and interviews with diverse young people, their parents and teachers, Class, Culture and Belonging in Rural Childhoods takes us deep into children’s everyday struggles and their efforts to manage insecurity and belonging within a polarised economic landscape. This book offers compelling new analysis of children’s experiences at a time of rapid and far-reaching change in rural communities and the world at large. This unique and engaging ethnography of rural Australia makes an important and timely contribution to wider understandings of how children navigate the precarious circumstances of the present.
Regional Cities and City Regions in Rural Australia: A Long-Term Demographic Perspective (SpringerBriefs in Population Studies)
by Peter John Smailes Trevor Louis Griffin Neil Michael ArgentThe book examines the extent to which the sustained population growth of Australia’s heartland regional centres has come at the expense of demographic decline in their own hinterlands, and, ultimately, of their entire regions. It presents a longitudinal study, over the period 1947-2011, of the extensive functional regions centred on six rapidly growing non-metropolitan cities in south-eastern Australia, emphasising rapid change since 1981. The selected cities are dominantly service centres in either inland or remote coastal agricultural settings. The book shows how intensified age-specific migration and structural ageing arising from macro-economic reforms in the 1980s fundamentally changed the economic and demographic landscapes of the case study regions. It traces the demographic consequences of the change from a relative balance between central city, minor urban centres and dispersed rural population within each functional region in 1947, to one of extreme central city dominance by 2011, and examines the long-term implications of these changes for regional policy. The book constitutes the first in-depth longitudinal study over the entire post-WWII period of a varied group of Australian regional cities and their hinterlands, defined in terms of functional regions. It employs a novel set of indices which combine numerical and visual expression to measure the structural ageing process.
Masculinity and Aspiration in an Era of Neoliberal Education: International Perspectives (Routledge Critical Studies In Gender And Sexuality In Education Ser. #Vol. 3)
by Garth Stahl Joseph Nelson Derron WallaceThis collection investigates the ways in which boys and young men negotiate neoliberal discourse surrounding aspiration and how neoliberalism shapes their identities. Expanding the field of masculinity studies in education, the contributors offer international comparisons of different subgroups of boys and young men in primary, secondary and university settings. A cross-sectional analysis of race, gender, and class theory is employed to illuminate the role of aspiration in shaping boys’ identities, which adds nuance to their complex "identity work" in neoliberal times.
Masculinity and Aspiration in an Era of Neoliberal Education: International Perspectives (PDF) (Routledge Critical Studies In Gender And Sexuality In Education Ser. #Vol. 3)
by Garth Stahl Joseph Nelson Derron WallaceThis collection investigates the ways in which boys and young men negotiate neoliberal discourse surrounding aspiration and how neoliberalism shapes their identities. Expanding the field of masculinity studies in education, the contributors offer international comparisons of different subgroups of boys and young men in primary, secondary and university settings. A cross-sectional analysis of race, gender, and class theory is employed to illuminate the role of aspiration in shaping boys’ identities, which adds nuance to their complex "identity work" in neoliberal times.
Footwear Impression Evidence: Detection, Recovery and Examination (PDF) (Practical Aspects Of Criminal And Forensic Investigations Ser.)
by William J. BodziakReviewed and recognized as the most authoritative source in the field, this book describes the methods used worldwide to recover and identify footwear impressions from the scene of a crime. In this new edition, everything, including the original twelve chapters, bibliography, appendix, etc., has been clarified, updated and expanded. This edition includes updated and new information on recovery procedures and materials such as lifting, photography and casting; chemical enhancement; updated information about footwear manufacturing; footwear sizing; and known impression techniques and materials. WHAT’S NEW IN THE SECOND EDITION: Besides updating and expanding the twelve original chapters, Footwear Impression Evidence: Detection, Recovery and Examination, Second Edition adds three new chapters: one chapter on barefoot evidence, which concerns impressions made by the naked or sock-clad foot or those which remain in abandoned or discarded footwear; another new chapter on several cases in which the footwear impression evidence was of primary importance in bringing about a conviction or confession; and finally, a new chapter on the footwear impression evidence in the O.J. Simpson criminal and civil cases.
Footwear Impression Evidence: Detection, Recovery and Examination (Practical Aspects Of Criminal And Forensic Investigations Ser.)
by William J. BodziakReviewed and recognized as the most authoritative source in the field, this book describes the methods used worldwide to recover and identify footwear impressions from the scene of a crime. In this new edition, everything, including the original twelve chapters, bibliography, appendix, etc., has been clarified, updated and expanded. This edition includes updated and new information on recovery procedures and materials such as lifting, photography and casting; chemical enhancement; updated information about footwear manufacturing; footwear sizing; and known impression techniques and materials. WHAT’S NEW IN THE SECOND EDITION: Besides updating and expanding the twelve original chapters, Footwear Impression Evidence: Detection, Recovery and Examination, Second Edition adds three new chapters: one chapter on barefoot evidence, which concerns impressions made by the naked or sock-clad foot or those which remain in abandoned or discarded footwear; another new chapter on several cases in which the footwear impression evidence was of primary importance in bringing about a conviction or confession; and finally, a new chapter on the footwear impression evidence in the O.J. Simpson criminal and civil cases.
Urban Eco-Communities in Australia: Real Utopian Responses to the Ecological Crisis or Niche Markets?
by Liam Cooper Hans A. BaerThis book offers one of the first detailed anthropological studies of emergent ecotopianism in urban contexts. Engaging directly with debates on urbanisation, sustainability and utopia, it presents two detailed ethnographic case studies of inner urban Australian eco-communities in Adelaide and Melbourne. These novel responses to the ecological crisis – real social laboratories that attempt to manifest a vision of the ‘eco-city’ in microcosm – offer substantial new insights into the concept and creation of sustainable urban communities, their attempts to cultivate ways of living that are socially and ecologically nourishing, and their often fraught relationship to the capitalist city beyond. These studies also suggest the opportunities and limitations of moving beyond demonstration projects towards wider urban transformation, as well as exposing the problems of accessibility and affordability that thwart further urban eco-interventions and the ways that existing projects can exacerbate issues of gentrification and privilege in a socially polarised city. Amidst the challenges of the capitalist city, climate change and ecological crisis, this book offers vital lessons on the potential of urban sustainability in future cities.
Regional Innovation Index of China: How Frontier Regions Innovate
by Xielin Liu Taishan Gao Xi WangThe book aims to explore the regional innovation capability of China, especially how the frontier regions of China (Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Tianjin) transform themselves from an investment-driven economy into an innovation-driven one. With detailed case, data and policy, we analyse the modes of each province and municipality from different perspectives such as comparative advantage in innovation, existing industrial base and culture, the government’s innovation strategy, and industrial upgrading pattern.
Women And Disability: The Experience Of Physical Disability Among Women (PDF) (Women In Society Ser.)
by Susan LonsdaleThis book describes the experience of physical disability through detailed interviews with women of different ages, races and socio-economic backgrounds, and explores the impact of gender on the process of being or becoming disabled. It considers the significance of physical disability for a woman's self image and its impact on her sexuality, relationships, marriage and child-rearing. The extent to which inadequate provision for disability makes a woman dependent is also examined, as is the way in which women with disabilities have been rendered invisible.
Auto-ethnography in Public Policy Advocacy: Theory, Policy and Practice
by Louise Sinden-CarrollThis book explores how public policy advocacy can be used to approach policy issue identification, resolution or, at the least, support the management of wicked policy issues. By describing how this type of advocacy draws on participatory action research, including ethnographic and auto-ethnographic models, this book offers a tool for public policy consumer advocates on how to apply the Human Capabilities Approach to address presenting public policy issues worldwide. By applying these models to the situation of prisoners with hearing loss in New Zealand’s prisons, it identifies multiple causal factors for quality-of-life-limiting marginalization, e.g. social barriers (e.g. disability discrimination); environmental limitations (e.g. geographical and those introduced by incarceration); and individual responses in line with negative attitudes – both social and political, including the State’s denial of prisoners’ right to democratic participation by revoking their right to vote in general elections after sentencing. In addition, two other areas, namely blood safety and broadcast media captioning, are highlighted, showing that the skill of auto-ethnography is transferrable and can be applied to ensure effective consumer advocacy for a diverse range of issues that affect marginalized sectors.
Urbanization in China: The Path to Harmony and Prosperity (Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path)
by Houkai WeiThis book traces the history of urbanization in China and discusses major problems and challenges the country is facing as it undergoes a profound social transformation. The author argues that as China tries to build not just more but also better cities, i.e., cities that are not only economically competitive but also people- and environment-friendly, it should adopt urbanization strategies and policies that promote integrated development for both rural and urban areas, and coordination among otherwise disparate objectives – such as industrialization, ecological modernization, informatization and cultural heritage preservation – nationwide and at various scales.
Chronicles of a Liquid Society
by Umberto EcoUmberto Eco was an international cultural superstar. A celebrated essayist as well as novelist, in this, his last collection, he explores many aspects of the modern world with irrepressible curiosity and wisdom. A crisis in ideological values, a crisis in politics, unbridled individualism – the familiar backdrop to our lives: a ‘liquid society’ where it’s not easy to find a polestar, though stars and starlets are not lacking.In these pieces, written by Eco as articles for his regular column in l’Espresso magazine, he brings his dazzling erudition and keen sense of the everyday to bear on topics such as popular culture and politics, being seen, conspiracies, the old and the young, mobile phones, mass media, racism, good manners and the crisis in ideological values. It is a final gift to his readers – astute, witty and illuminating.