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Storying Multipolar Climes of the Himalaya, Andes and Arctic: Anthropocenic Climate and Shapeshifting Watery Lifeworlds (Routledge Environmental Humanities)
This book initiates multipolar climate/clime studies of the world’s altitudinal and latitudinal highlands with terrestrial, experiential, and affective approaches. Framed in the environmental humanities, it is an interdisciplinary, comparative study of the mutually-embodied relations of climate, nature, culture, and place in the Himalaya, Andes, and Arctic. Innovation-driven, the book offers multipolar clime case studies through the contributors’ historical findings, ethnographic documentations, and diverse conceptualizations and applications of clime, an overlooked but returning notion of place embodied with climate history, pattern, and changes. The multipolar clime case studies in the book are geared toward deeper, lively explorations and demonstrations of the translatability, interchangeability, and complementarity between the notions of clime and climate. "Multipolar" or "multipolarity" in this book connotes not only the two polar regions and the tectonically shaped highlands of the earth but also diversely debated perspectives of climate studies in the broadest sense. Contributors across the twelve chapters come from diverse fields of social and natural sciences and humanities, and geographically specialize, respectively, in the Himalayan, Andean, and Arctic regions. The first comparative study of climate change in altitudinal and latitudinal highlands, this will be an important read for students, academics, and researchers in environmental humanities, anthropology, climate science, indigenous studies, and ecology.
Stranded Assets and the Environment: Risk, Resilience and Opportunity (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)
Drawing on the work of leading researchers and practitioners from a range of disciplines, including economic geography, economics, economic history, finance, law, and public policy, this edited collection provides a comprehensive assessment of stranded assets and the environment, covering the fundamental issues and debates, including climate change and societal responses to environmental change, as well as its origins and theoretical basis. The volume provides much needed clarity as the discourse on stranded assets gathers further momentum. In addition to drawing on scholarly contributions, there are chapters from practitioners and analysts to provide a range of critical perspectives. While chapters have been written as important standalone contributions, the book is intended to systematically take the reader through the key dimensions of stranded assets as a topic of research inquiry and practice. The work adopts a broad based social science perspective for setting out what stranded assets are, why they are relevant, and how they might inform the decision-making of firms, investors, policymakers, and regulators. The topic of stranded assets is inherently multi-disciplinary, cross-sectoral, and multi-jurisdictional and the volume reflects this diversity. This book will be of great relevance to scholars, practitioners and policymakers with an interest in include economics, business and development studies, climate policy and environmental studies in general.
Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC, Leuven, Belgium, 13-15 September 2016)
Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions. Anamnesis, diagnosis, therapy, controls contains the papers presented at the 10th International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions (SAHC2016, Leuven, Belgium, 13-15 September 2016). The main theme of the book is “Anamnesis, Diagnosis, Therapy, Controls”, which emphasizes the importance of all steps of a restoration process in order to obtain a thorough understanding of the structural behaviour of built cultural heritage. The contributions cover every aspect of the structural analysis of historical constructions, such as material characterization, structural modelling, static and dynamic monitoring, non-destructive techniques for on-site investigation, seismic behaviour, rehabilitation, traditional and innovative repair techniques, and case studies. The knowledge, insights and ideas in Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions. Anamnesis, diagnosis, therapy, controls make this book of abstracts and the corresponding, digital full-colour conference proceedings containing the full papers must-have literature for researchers and practitioners involved in the structural analysis of historical constructions.
Structural Seismic and Civil Engineering Research: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Structural Seismic and Civil Engineering Research (ICSSCER 2022), Qingdao, China, 21-23 October 2022
Structural Seismic and Civil Engineering focuses on civil engineering research, anti-seismic technology and engineering structure. These proceedings gather the most cutting-edge research and achievements, aiming to provide scholars and engineers with preferable research directions and engineering solutions as reference. Subjects in these proceedings include: Engineering Structure Materials of Civil Engineering Structural Seismic Resistance Monitoring and Testing The works in these proceedings aim to promote the development of civil engineering and earthquake engineering. Thereby, promoting scientific information interchange between scholars from top universities, research centers and high-tech enterprises working all around the world.
Sufficiency Thinking: Thailand's gift to an unsustainable world
Our world is under pressure, with growing inequalities in wealth and access to food and clean water. We depend too heavily on polluting fuels and diminishing natural resources. Traditional cultural practices are being swamped by global popular culture.The Thai model of sufficiency thinking aims to transform the mindset of a whole population to achieve the seemingly impossible: enriching everyone's lives in a truly sustainable way.Innovative management practices developed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand have been applied across Thailand in agriculture, education, business, government and community organisations for over two decades.In this book, chapters written by eminent Thai scholars explain sufficiency thinking and review its implementation in different sectors including community development, business, agriculture, health care, schools, and even in prisons.Is Thailand unique in having discovered the holy grail of a more responsible form of capitalism? No, it is not, but it is the first country whose government has adopted this kind of thinking as national policy.'...we obviously need to revise dramatically our thinking about the outlines of a just economy and a decent society in which everyone can lead dignified lives. Sufficiency Thinking provides creative approaches to this quandary and this important volume is a brilliant addition to the growing literature critical of mainstream business-as-usual ideology.' - John Komlos, Professor Emeritus, University of Munich
The Supply Chain: A System in Crisis
The Supply Chain: A System in Crisis highlights the multifaceted challenges facing modern supply chains. It examines the concept of a globalized economy, juxtaposing the promise of prosperity with the acute reality of worker exploitation and environmental harm. This thought-provoking book explores the interconnected relationships of supply chains with political problems, social crises, and the depreciation of natural resources.Analyzing in depth the rapid development of the global economic system and the subsequent vulnerability of the supply chain, international experts dive into the many issues exacerbated by this commercial evolution, covering disasters such as the Rana Plaza collapse. Urging the reader to rethink supply chain management, the book calls for a transformation from mere value creation to sustainability and regeneration. Considering the power of systemic and holistic thinking as well as transformative public policy, it envisions a future in which supply chains emerge reborn and resilient.This seminal book is an indispensable resource for scholars of supply chain and sustainability management, corporate social responsibility, and responsible consumption and production. It will also be of critical use to practitioners, political decision makers, business strategists, and environmental and labor rights activists.
Surveys in Theoretical High Energy Physics - 2: Lecture Notes from SERC Schools (Texts and Readings in Physical Sciences #15)
The book presents pedagogical reviews of important topics on high energy physics to the students and researchers in particle physics. The book also discusses topics on the Quark–Gluon plasma, thermal field theory, perturbative quantum chromodynamics, anomalies and cosmology. Students of particle physics need to be well-equipped with basic understanding of many concepts underlying the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. This is particularly true today when experimental results from colliders, such as large hadron collider (LHC) and relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC), as well as inferences from cosmological observations, are expected to further expand our understanding of particle physics at high energies. This volume is the second in the Surveys in Theoretical High Energy Physics Series (SThEP). Topics covered in this book are based on lectures delivered at the SERC Schools in Theoretical High Energy Physics at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, and the University of Hyderabad.
Sustainability Beyond Technology: Philosophy, Critique, and Implications for Human Organization
Current debates on sustainability are largely building on a problematic assumption that increasing technology use and advancement are a desired phenomenon, creating positive change in human organizations. This kind of techno-optimism prevails particularly in the discourses of ecological modernization and green growth, as well as in the attempts to design sustainable modes of production and consumption within growth-driven capitalism. This transdisciplinary book investigates the philosophical underpinnings of technology, presents a culturally sensitive critique to technology, and outlines feasible alternatives for sustainability beyond technology. It draws on a variety of scholarly disciplines, including the humanities (philosophy and environmental history), social sciences (ecological economics, political economy, and ecology) and natural sciences (geology and thermodynamics) to contribute to sustainability theory and policy. By examining the conflicts and contradictions between technology and sustainability in human organization, the book develops a novel way to conceptualize, confront, and change technology in modern society.
Sustainable and Dynamic Graduate Employability: A Comparative Overview across Geographies (Towards Sustainable Futures)
This volume presents a theoretical and strategic discussion on the linkages between sustainable graduate employability and economic growth. With case studies from India, South Africa, Taiwan, UK, Germany, USA, UAE, Australia, and France, it looks at the skills training and education landscape around the world, examines the state of employment, and offers case-specific recommendations. The book analyzes the role of higher education and vocational education policies and strategies in integrating skill training in education in order to achieve quality education and sustainable employment for all. An important critique of skills training, education policy and planning, the volume will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of sustainable development, development studies, public policy, political economy, labour studies, and education. It will also be useful for policymakers.
Sustainable Consumption: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives In Honour of Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta
If global society is to address the many environmental and other sustainability challenges that confront us in the twenty-first century, such as climate change and water resources, it will be necessary to make significant changes in our patterns of consumption, production, and distribution. There is a growing realization that while changes in production and distribution are formidable, the proposed solutions may not succeed unless it is possible to persuade individuals and households to change their patterns of consumption to make them more sustainable. However there are significant differences in how key disciplines such as psychology, neuroscience, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, and history conceptualise consumption, empirically test their theoretical predictions, and use these to inform policy-makers across the private, public and third sectors on how to make consumption more sustainable. This book contains chapters from world-leading experts in these different disciplines that seek to explain the perspectives on sustainable consumption of their disciplines, suggest how these might be further enriched by taking on board some of the findings from other disciplines, and consider what this implies for new policies to address the key sustainability challenges outlined above. The book is dedicated to Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, one of the world's leading economists who has worked across a range of topics, including environmental and resource economics and development economics, and throughout his career has sought to incorporate into his economic thinking ideas from a range of other disciplines.
Sustainable Development Goal 16 and the Global Governance of Violence: Critical Reflections on the Uncertain Future of Peace (Routledge Studies in Sustainable Development)
This book brings together a diverse range of scholars and practitioners working at the nexus of peace and development to reflect, at the mid-way point of the Sustainable Development Goals implementation period, what impact Goal 16 has made, or may yet make, toward reducing violence in ‘all its forms.’ Adopted in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals include 17 objectives designed to shape and direct the global development agenda through to 2030, with Goal 16 aiming to promote ‘peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.’ Amidst an ongoing global pandemic, evidence of a fracturing liberal international order, and the persistence of seemingly intractable conflict in large parts of the world, this volume takes stock of current progress toward providing access to justice and ensuring inclusive and democratic institutions. Across 15 chapters, the book’s contributors explore the universal aspirations of Goal 16 and its specific implications for conflict-affected states, which continue to experience ‘development in reverse,’ and for historically marginalized groups such as women, youth, the disabled, and indigenous peoples. In doing so, it offers a comprehensive assessment of Goal 16’s broader contribution to the creation of a more just, peaceful world against the realities of societies emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and grappling with a deepening climate crisis. This volume will appeal to scholars, researchers, policymakers, and postgraduate students in sustainable development, global governance, international relations, global development, international law, and political science.
Sustainable Digital Technologies: Trends, Impacts, and Assessments
This book is a reference on digital technology and its impact on sustainability, providing insight into sustainable practices globally. It focuses on the critical practices leading to sustainable initiatives among various organizations, IT infrastructure, communities, and government compliance. The book describes the green computing paradigms and the impact of a circular economy with a focus on sustainable practices in a post-pandemic world. Sustainable Digital Technologies: Trends, Impacts, and Assessments discusses the critical factors leading to sustainable initiatives in a global economy. It highlights the impact of digital technology and Industry 4.0 in today’s world. The book focuses on the role, responsibility, and the effect of the Internet of Things for digital sustainability and practices. It describes implementation strategies for green cloud computing and presents additional strategies for sustainable practices in a post-pandemic world. This publication is designed for use by technology development academicians, data scientists, industrial professionals, researchers, and students interested in uncovering the latest innovations in the field and the current research on problem-oriented processing techniques in sustainable and evolutionary computing applications with reduced energy channelization.
Sustainable Finance and Climate Change: Law and Regulation (Elgar Financial Law and Practice series)
Sustainable Finance and Climate Change explores the legal and regulatory framework that governs the transition to a carbon free economy, looking in particular at the regulation of the financial sector and corporate liability for climate change and biodiversity loss. In addition, it looks at the effect on general corporate law, environmental law, central bank law, as well as litigation and arbitration.Key Features:Discussion of the duty of societal responsibility in the context of corporate governancePractical analysis of arbitration and litigation in the resolution of climate change-related disputesExploration of the role of investors in the new sustainable finance-related regulatory frameworkComprehensive examination of sustainable finance in South AfricaIn-depth analysis of the role of law and regulation in providing sustainable finance by means of various financial modalitiesEvaluation of the newly-established framework in the EU, including the Climate Law, the taxonomy and the role of the ECB as a monetary and supervisory authorityThis important book will be a key resource for practitioners specialising in financial services, environmental law and dispute resolution, and will also appeal to scholars in these fields.
Sustainable Food Procurement: Legal, Social and Organisational Challenges (Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment)
The book examines sustainable food procurement policy and practice in the European Union and beyond, exploring the extent to which sustainability objectives have been achieved and evaluating the new developments taking place at both EU and national levels.While there is a growing recognition that public authorities can use public procurement as a policy tool to pursue multiple environmental, health and socio-economic objectives, contracting authorities still face many challenges. This volume investigates the scope for pursuing sustainable objectives in public procurement of food and catering services, examining different regulatory contexts and organisational models to answer the overall question of how to integrate sustainability concerns into the various phases of public food procurement processes. Contributions in the book examine the policy and legal procurement framework and practices for sustainable public catering in three EU Member States: Italy, France and Spain. There is a comparative survey of the Baltic Region, including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland and Russia, and moving beyond the EU, there is examination of the UK and Brazil, as well as a cross country comparison of the UK with Denmark and Sweden. Drawing on the expertise of an interdisciplinary and intersectoral team of contributors allows the book to benefit from the insights of different disciplines, including business sciences, anthropology and law. Tapping into the global discussion on public food procurement as a means to achieve multiple social and environmental goals, this work will stimulate readers looking for new creative ways to create value through public food purchasing.This book will be of great interest to students, researchers, policymakers and public- and private-sector representatives interested in public procurement, food policy and law, sustainable food sourcing and supply chain management.
Sustainable Human Development Across the Life Course: Evidence from Longitudinal Research
It is critical that the wellbeing of society is systematically tracked by indicators that not only give an accurate picture of human life today but also provide a window into the future for all of us. This book presents impactful findings from international longitudinal studies that respond to the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 commitment to “leave no-one behind”. Contributors explore a wide range and complexity of pressing global issues, with emphasis given to excluded and vulnerable populations and gender inequality. Importantly, it sets out actionable strategies for policymakers and practitioners to help strengthen the global Sustainable Development Goals framework, accelerate their implementation and improve the construction of effective public policy.
Sustainable Planet [2 volumes]: Issues and Solutions for Our Environment's Future [2 volumes]
Sustainable Planet is a two-volume resource that provides comprehensive coverage on the world's most pressing environmental issues, their impact in countries around the world, and how—or if—they are being addressed.Sustainable Planet: Issues and Solutions for Our Environment's Future examines contemporary challenges to sustainability, including population, climate change, decreasing biodiversity, land degradation, and water quality. Each chapter analyzes one of these challenges by first providing an introduction to the topic as well as key concepts to provide readers with a basic understanding of the issue. Essays deepen comprehension by investigating different aspects of the challenge.Case studies written by experts in the field follow. Each case study considers how a specific country is affected by the particular issue as well as the measures the country is taking to find solutions that will provide for a more sustainable future. The final chapter of the book explores sustainability at a global level by examining, through annotated primary documents, a number of multinational initiatives and alliances intended to create a more sustainable planet.
Taxation and the Green Growth Challenge (Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation series)
Taxation and the Green Growth Challenge addresses the pressing issue of how economic growth can be compatible with the fight against climate change, while protecting the environment as much as possible. The book shows how decision-makers must account for the legal value of the environment as being of benefit to future generations.With a broad approach, and a combination of legal and economic points of view, chapters discuss which tax instruments enable us to combine economic growth and environmental protection in a balanced way. This discerning book identifies the tax instruments that permit a comprehensive arrangement of underlying economic and political interests, with a view to pursuing the UN’s and EU’s ambitious environmental goals. The impressive selection of contributors also reflect on global initiatives and legislation as well as exploring new environmental strategies.This book will be of great interest to researchers and scholars who wish to analyse in-depth environmental and natural resource taxation issues, including energy taxation and carbon pricing, as well as the circular economy and green taxes in the context of wider tax reforms. It will also appeal to industry advisors, policymakers and government officials.
Teaching and Learning Sustainable Consumption: A Guidebook (Routledge-SCORAI Studies in Sustainable Consumption)
This book is a comprehensive guide on how to teach sustainable consumption in higher education. Teaching and Learning Sustainable Consumption: A Guidebook systematizes the themes, objectives, and theories that characterize sustainable consumption as an educational field. The first part of the book discusses approaches to teaching and learning sustainable consumption in higher education, including reflections on how learning occurs, to more practical considerations like how to set objectives or assess learning outcomes. The second part of the book is a dive into inspiring examples of what this looks like in a range of contexts and towards different aims – involving 57 diverse contributions by teachers and practitioners. Building on the momentum of a steady increase in courses addressing sustainable consumption over the past decade, this guidebook supports innovative approaches to teaching and learning, while also bringing to the fore conceptual debates around higher education and sustainability. Overall, this book will be a seminal resource for educators teaching about sustainability and consumption. It will help them to navigate the specifics of sustainable consumption as a field of scholarship, and design their teaching approaches in a more informed, competent, and creative way.
Teaching Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: Paradigms and Pedagogy (Elgar Guides to Teaching)
Teaching Environmental and Natural Resource Economics is a significant contribution to the literature of economics education. Theory and practice, teaching activities and exercises, and pro teaching tips are clearly and expertly presented.The editors begin by presenting a bit of the historical thought on the study of environmental and natural resource economics. Once the editors establish context, they provide a full exploration of both paradigms and pedagogy. The paradigm section provides models for teaching the variety of courses offered at the university level. The chapters bridge the gap between environmental and natural resource economics textbooks and the classroom, with guidance for how to approach course topics. The pedagogy section is an excellent contribution to the teaching of environmental and natural resource economics, covering both particular topics and teaching methods.University instructors will find this guide to teaching environmental and natural resource economics invaluable in helping students gain a better understanding of the theory and practice of environmental and natural resource economics.
Technology and Sustainable Development: The Promise and Pitfalls of Techno-Solutionism
Technological change is at the core of all major disruptions in human history, and revolutions, wars, and general development are regularly connected to some sort of technological change. However, not all development is beneficial. While technology has fueled great innovations and rapid development, the notion of sustainable development has gained prominence as we now experience serious social, economic, and environmental challenges. This book examines whether technology can be used to fix the very problems caused by technology, as the various chapters examine different aspects related to how technology has brought us where we are today (which some will say is the best place humanity’s been at according to a range of metrics), and whether technology helps or hinders us in our efforts to solve the challenges we currently face. The issues discussed cover the three sustainability dimensions and include topics such as the materiality of AI, technology in education, AI for gender equality, innovation and the digital divide, and how technology relates to power, the political system, and capitalism. The chapters all build on the theoretical backdrop of technological change, sustainable development, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are actively used throughout this book, both to examine how these goals capture or overlook central elements of sustainable development, and also to facilitate and create a common framework of engagement between the chapters. This book provides a novel combination of traditional theories that are explored through different case studies, providing the ground for a better understanding of how and when technology can –and cannot –be the enabler of sustainable development. It is thus an important resource for students of all disciplines, technologists, and those developing and applying new technologies. It is also a valuable resource for politicians and regulators attempting to harness the power of technology for good, while limiting its negative potential. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license. Funded by Ostfold University College.
Technology, Business and Sustainable Development: Advances for People, Planet and Profit (The Annals of Business Research)
Triple bottom line (TBL or 3BL) was coined as a wide and inspiring approach for businesses aimed at understanding how to create, track, and manage economic, social, and environmental values added. The sustainability sector is strongly increasing its relevance among academics and practitioners, and the market opportunities associated with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) are estimated at over $ 12 trillion per year by 2030. Although this is a promising context, a recent article suggested a rethinking of the TBL, arguing that sustainability goals’ value should not be assessed in terms of profit and loss but of people well-being and planet health, looking for a societal profit. Technology plays a crucial role in our society. Respectively, the Agenda 21 and the Paris Agreement consider technology to be essential in the pursuit of sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs. Adding to this, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital solutions in several fields, from the way of working to the way of buying and consuming. Companies are becoming more aware of the responsibility they have within environmental and human contexts, and people are looking for work reflecting their values and purposes to motivate them. This book aims to contribute to the understanding of the role of technology and its emerging and innovative solutions in the achievement of sustainable development while making a profit. It will be of value to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of strategic management, entrepreneurship, management of technology and innovation, and sustainable development.
Technology, Sustainability and the Fashion Industry: Can Fashion Save the World? (Responsible Fashion)
There is widespread rhetorical agreement that the fashion industry must get itself onto a more sustainable footing. What does this mean in practice, and how can sustainability be achieved in different regions around the world? This book brings together expert scholars and reflective practitioners via a network of dialogue and exchange to help drive forward a sustainable future for the fashion industry. With a focus on technological innovation, the contributions to this book provide a range of case studies from design thinking, through digital clothing and inclusive fashion. This book will be of interest to researchers and scholars in the fields of circular business and the fashion industry, and provides a unique resource for readers seeking to understand more about the need for responsible fashion and how technology might be able to help.
Terrestrial Fluids, Earthquakes and Volcanoes: The Hiroshi Wakita Volume I (Pageoph Topical Volumes)
Theorizing Built Form and Culture: The Legacy of Amos Rapoport (Routledge Research in Architecture)
In this collection of essays, Theorizing Built Form and Culture: The Legacy of Amos Rapoport – a felicitation volume to celebrate the significance of Professor Amos Rapoport's lifelong scholarship – scholars from around the world discuss the analytical relevance, expansion, and continuing application of these contributions in developing an advanced understanding of mutual relationships between people and built environments across cultures.Professor Amos Rapoport has espoused an intellectual and theoretical legacy on environmental design scholarship that explains how cultural factors play a significant role in the ways people create and use environments as well as the way environments, in turn, influence people’s behavior. This volume presents a hitherto-not-seen, unique, and singular work that simultaneously articulates a cohesive framework of Rapoport’s architectural theories and demonstrates how that theoretical approach be used in architectural inquiry, education, and practice across environmental scales, types, and cultural contexts. It also acknowledges, for the very first time, how this theoretical legacy has pioneered the decolonizing of the Eurocentric approaches to architectural inquiry and has thus privileged an inclusive, cross-cultural perspective that laid the groundwork to understand and analyze non-Western design traditions. The book thus reflects a wide range of cross-cultural and cross-contextual range to which Professor Rapoport’s theories apply, a general notion of theoretical validity he always advocated for in his own writings.The volume is a paramount source for scholars and students of architecture who are interested in understanding how culture mediates the creation, use, and preservation of the built environment.
Theory and Applications of Liquid Crystals (The IMA Volumes in Mathematics and its Applications #5)
This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications AMORPHOUS POLYMERS AND NON-NEWTONIAN FLUIDS is in part the proceedings of a workshop which was an integral part of the 1984-85 IMA program on CONTINUUM PHYSICS AND PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS We are grateful to the Scientific Committee: Haim Brezis Constantine Dafermos Jerry Eri cksen David Kinderlehrer for planning and implementing an exciting and stimulating year-long program. We espe cially thank the Program Organizers, Jerry Ericksen, David Kinderlehrer, Stephen Prager and Matthew Tirrell for organizing a workshop which brought together scientists and mathematicians in a variety of areas for a fruitful exchange of ideas. George R. Sell Hans Weinberger Preface The diversity of experimental phenomena and the range of applications of liquid crystals present timely and challenging questions for experimentalists, mechanists, and mathematicians. The scope of this workshop was to bring together research workers and practitioners in these areas from laboratories, industry, and universities to explore common issues. The contents of this volume vary from descriptions of experimental phenomena, of which our understanding is insufficient, to questions of a mathematical nature and of efficient computation.