Reckless opportunists

Reckless opportunists PDF Author: Aeron Davis
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526127296
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
Aeron Davis takes a close look at the state of elites today. He argues that the Brexit vote and 2017 election outcome are signs of a deeper leadership crisis that has been developing over decades. The great transformations of the 1980s onwards have not only upended societies, they have reshaped elite rule itself. Too many leaders today, regardless of intent, are ignorant, precarious, rootless and self-serving. Although richer, they have lost coherence, influence and control. Increasingly, they are just reckless opportunists, getting what they can amid the chaos they have created. Their failings are not only damaging wider society, they are undermining the very foundations of the Establishment itself. The book, based on interviews with over 350 elite figures, asks: how did we end up producing the leaders that got us here and what can we do about it?

Reckless opportunists

Reckless opportunists PDF Author: Aeron Davis
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526127296
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 141

Get Book Here

Book Description
Aeron Davis takes a close look at the state of elites today. He argues that the Brexit vote and 2017 election outcome are signs of a deeper leadership crisis that has been developing over decades. The great transformations of the 1980s onwards have not only upended societies, they have reshaped elite rule itself. Too many leaders today, regardless of intent, are ignorant, precarious, rootless and self-serving. Although richer, they have lost coherence, influence and control. Increasingly, they are just reckless opportunists, getting what they can amid the chaos they have created. Their failings are not only damaging wider society, they are undermining the very foundations of the Establishment itself. The book, based on interviews with over 350 elite figures, asks: how did we end up producing the leaders that got us here and what can we do about it?

Enough of Experts

Enough of Experts PDF Author: Cara Reed
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110734915
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Enough of Experts: Expert Authority in Crisis analyses the challenges and threats to expert authority in neoliberal political economies and societies. It focuses upon the deep-seated political, economic, social and cultural transformations which have fundamentally destabilized and eroded the institutional foundations of expert authority over more than four decades. The book critically assesses the orthodox or ‘received’ model of expert authority as it has come under escalating pressures from a nexus of ideological, organizational, technological and cultural changes that have radically weakened the former’s core ‘institutional logic’ and practical efficacy. It also looks forward to a range of ‘expert futures’ in which expert groups and organizations decline in power and status as their prevalence proliferates to a stage where they become ubiquitous in neoliberal regimes. Finally, the book presents an alternative reflexive model of expert authority and governance that is grounded in the ‘dynamics of contestation and trust’ and stands in direct contrast to the orthodox, rational model.

The Class Ceiling

The Class Ceiling PDF Author: Friedman, Sam
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447336100
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Politicians continually tell us that anyone can get ahead. But is that really true? This important, best-selling book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Friedman and Laurison show that a powerful 'class pay gap’ exists in Britain’s elite occupations. Even when those from working-class backgrounds make it into prestigious jobs, they earn, on average, 16% less than colleagues from privileged backgrounds. But why is this the case? Drawing on 175 interviews across four case studies – television, accountancy, architecture, and acting – they explore the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile. This is a rich, ambitious book that demands we take seriously not just the glass but also the class ceiling.

Clumsy Floodplains

Clumsy Floodplains PDF Author: Thomas Hartmann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131716492X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Extreme floods cause enormous damage in floodplains, which levees cannot prevent. Therefore, it is vital for spatial planning to provide space for water retention in these areas. Land use planners, water management agencies, landowners, and policymakers all agree on this challenge, but attempts to make the space for rivers to provide retention are generally not very successful. Adopting an innovative interdisciplinary approach, this book examines how society can manage the use of the floodplains along rivers in the face of extreme floods, focusing in particular on the relation between social arrangements and the elemental forces of floods. The book firstly analyses why contemporary floodplain management is so often clumsy and ineffective by looking at various real-life situations in Germany, using Cultural Theory to provide a much-needed, but previously neglected social perspective. These analyses show a pattern of activity resulting from different rationalities which dominate the floodplains in different phases. During extreme floods, it is rational to manage floodplains as dangerous areas; sandbags and disaster management dominate the scene. After some time, the rationality of control takes over the floodplain management; policymakers discuss flood risk and water managers build levees. When public attention diminishes, floodplains become inconspicuous until more and more stakeholders regard floodplains as profitable land. The current system of planning, law, and property rights even encourages stakeholders to act out their plural rationalities. A permanent dynamic imbalance of different rationalities leads to a robust social construction of the floodplains which results in viable but clumsy floodplains. In the course of time, however, the patterns of activity in the floodplains lead to an increase in intensity and frequency of extreme floods, and to more vulnerable potential damages in the floodplains. Risk increases. Coping with this situation needs another kind of floodplain management. This book proposes an innovative concept - Large Areas for Temporary Emergency Retention (LATER) - in "Clumsy Floodplains" as an alternative to levee-based flood protection. The concept aims at reducing damage by extreme floods in a catchment area by inundating less valuable areas to protect places that are more valuable. It finally examines how this LATER concept might be implemented in areas where there is currently a clumsy style of floodplain management, what interventions are required and how these might come about effectively. Again, using Cultural Theory, the book puts forward a valuable land policy solution which aims at implementing LATER in clumsy floodplains and which develops an obligatory insurance against natural hazards as a responsive land policy for LATER. The book represents the author's PhD research, which he conducted as research assistant at the department for Land Policy, Land Management and Municipal Geoinformation at the School of Spatial Planning, TU Dortmund University, Germany.

Bankruptcy, bubbles and bailouts

Bankruptcy, bubbles and bailouts PDF Author: Aeron Davis
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526159767
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
The Treasury is one of Britain’s oldest, most powerful and secretive institutions, one that has played a central role in shaping the country's economic system. But all too often it has escaped public scrutiny when it comes to investigating the ups and downs of the UK economy. When portrayed, it is usually as a bedrock of government stability in times of crisis, repeatedly rescuing the nation’s finances from the hands of posturing politicians and the combustions of world financial markets. However, there is another side to the story. In between the highs there have been many lows, from botched privatizations to dubious private finance initiatives, from failing to spot the great financial crisis to facilitating ever-growing inequalities. Davis’s book goes behind the scenes to offer an inside history of the Treasury, in the words of the chancellors, advisors and civil servants themselves. It shows the shortcomings as well as the successes, the personalities and the thinking which have shaped Britain’s economy since the mid-1970s. Based on interviews with over fifty key figures, it offers a fascinating, alternative insight on how and why the UK economy came to function as it does today, and why reform is long overdue.

Off Her Rockers ( A Duet)

Off Her Rockers ( A Duet) PDF Author: S. Ann Cole
Publisher: S. Ann Cole
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
​I’m in love with him. I chose him. So why did I do it? He wants me. He waited for me. So why did he do it? She’s a sweetheart. A kind heart. So why did she do it? I love him. But I didn’t choose him. Why couldn’t he respect it? There are no good guys in this game. We’re all liars, cheaters, secret-keepers. We know what we need, still we take what we don’t want. I wanted a happy ending. But with my struggle to be a better me without him, and his struggle to live clean without me, plus a cruel twist of fate we weren’t prepared for, there’s no chance in hell either of us will be walking away with our hearts still whole. k here to edit. ***OFF HER ROCKERS is the sequel to ICE STEAM in the "Loving All Wrong Duet" and should be read after ICE STEAM.****

Foundational Economy

Foundational Economy PDF Author: The Foundational Economy Collective
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526165406
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
The foundational economy is everywhere: from clean water to care homes, schools to hospitals, these vital services were established between 1880 and 1980 to be collectively paid for, collectively delivered and collectively consumed. This essential framework has transformed the lives of billions, but in the last generation it has come under considerable attack. Privatisation, market choice and outsourcing have depleted the material infrastructure at the core of everyday life, and the foundational economy is in desperate need of renewal. This book sets out the principles and initiatives to end the degradation of the foundational economy and restore its essential place in society. In the face of our growing needs, the authors argue, politics must refocus on foundational consumption and universal minimum access and quality.

Spectacle and Trumpism

Spectacle and Trumpism PDF Author: Jacob C. Miller
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1529212510
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
This radical and experimental book advances a new approach to understanding spectacle, one that helps us better understand how consumer culture paved the way for the post-truth politics of Donald Trump. Miller innovatively blends social and political theory, newspaper articles and contemporary commentary on Trump and Trumpism to provide a unique perspective on how capitalism intersects with and enables fascistic forms of power. His analysis contributes fresh insights to the rise of Trump and the politics of everyday consumer culture today.

Schooling Reimagined

Schooling Reimagined PDF Author: David H Hargreaves
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350471372
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
If the society that lies ahead is to be a better and more ethical one, schools play a key role in its realisation. Since the 1944 Education Act implemented at the end of World War II in Europe, schooling became dominated by the idea of a meritocracy for its function in promoting social mobility. In this book, David Hargreaves explores ways in which schooling might be reimagined to strengthen the moral and ethical base of schooling, to cultivate in students the excellences of intellect and character that underlie deep happiness. Hargreaves emphasise the importance of happiness, excellence and civic friendship to reframe the aims of schooling, drawing on works from Emile Durkheim and Aristotle, and the lesser known studies of Carol Gilligan and Sybil Schwarzenbach. He explores how the rapidly changing nature of work is an important ethical ally by providing new time and space for building community cohesion and the growth of protest and social movements offers new opportunities by which young people can play active roles in the creation of an ethical society. Bringing together various areas of study usually kept apart, this book is novel in its exploration of schooling as a powerful source of change if we are to create a more ethical society that lies ahead.

Rich Crime, Poor Crime

Rich Crime, Poor Crime PDF Author: Colin Webster
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 1839098244
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
An important and challenging book comprehensively spanning across the establishment of power systems, Rich Crime, Poor Crime is a vital read for academics, professionals and those interested in the fields of history, sociology, criminology, and politics.