Social Sector in a Decentralized Economy

In this book, we will analyze the process of decentralization in India and examine its effectiveness on health and education service delivery. Against the backdrop of theoretical and empirical evidences, the book examines the accountability frameworks of decentralization in public service delivery and arrives at a plausible public expenditure benefit incidence in health and education sectors in…

Aftershocks :Economic Crisis and Institutional Choice

Aftershocks was written in the midst of the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Although it would be premature to presume to identify the repercussions of the crisis, it is clear that it will have profound aftershock effects in the political, economic, and social spheres. The book contains essays based on semi-structured interviews with leading scholars, European politicians and…

"This handbook presents cutting-edge research on Asian transnationalism written by experts in the areas of migration, diaspora, ethnicity, gender, language, education, politics, media, art, popular culture, and literature from a diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives. The Asian region not only constitutes one of the largest diasporic populations in the world but also the most diver…

Visual and camera sensors

This book includes 13 papers published in Special Issue ("Visual and Camera Sensors") of the journal Sensors. The goal of this Special Issue was to invite high-quality, state-of-the-art research papers dealing with challenging issues in visual and camera sensors.

Flowers in the Wall :Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste, Indonesia, and …

What is the experience of truth and reconciliation? What is the purpose of a truth commission? What lessons can be learned from established truth and reconciliation processes? Flowers in the Wall explores the experience of truth and reconciliation Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific, with and without a formal truth commission. Although much has been written about the operational phases of …

Agency Theory:Methodology, Analysis: A Structured Approach to Writing Contracts

Designing a contract is often more of an economic than a legal problem. A good contract protects parties against opportunistic behavior while providing motivation to cooperate. This is where economics and, especially contract theory, may prove helpful by enhancing our understanding of incentive issues. The purpose of this book is to provide specific tools which will help to write better contrac…

The theory and practice of online learning

Every chapter in the widely distributed first edition has been updated, and four new chapters on current issues such as connectivism and social software innovations have been added. Essays by practitioners and scholars active in the complex, diverse, and rapidly evolving field of distance education blend scholarship and research; practical attention to the details of teaching and learning; and …

Addressing the Climate Crisis:Local Action in Theory and Practice

This open access book brings together a collection of cutting-edge insights into how action can and is already being taken against climate change at multiple levels of our societies, amidst growing calls for transformative and inclusive climate action. In an era of increasing recognition regarding climate and ecological breakdown, this book offers hope, inspiration and analyses for multi-level …

Chasing the Chinese Dream:Four Decades of Following China’s War on Poverty

This open access book explores the historical, cultural and philosophical contexts that have made anti-poverty the core of Chinese society since Liberation in 1949, and why poverty alleviation measures evolved from the simplistic aid of the 1950s to Xi Jinping’s precision poverty alleviation and its goal of eliminating absolute poverty by 2020. The book also addresses the implications of Chin…

Socioeconomic factors and outcomes in higher education :a multivariate analysis

In the Colombian case, it is very common to associate academic performance with the students' socioeconomic conditions. A generalized and bivariate interpretation of this relationship could imply that only students from a high socioeconomic class would perform satisfactorily and that all students from a low socioeconomic class would perform poorly. If this is the case, then the educational syst…