ISSUE 45: MARCH-MAY 2007
network of research and training centres/programmes
FRONT PAGE | ARCHIVE |
New from UNU Press
 |
Understanding Human Well-being
Edited by Mark McGillivray and Matthew Clarke
With more than a billion people living on less than one dollar per day, human well-being is a core issue for researchers and policy-makers.
Although we now know more about human well-being and the related concepts of poverty and inequality than ever before, the vitality of underlying concepts and the quality of data are repeatedly challenged.
This book examines advances in underlying well-being, poverty and inequality concepts and corresponding empirical applications and case studies. The authors examine traditional monetary concepts and measurements, and non-monetary factors including educational achievement, longevity, health, and subjective well-being.
- Mark McGillivray is a Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER in Helsinki and an Inaugural Fellow of the Human Development and Capabilities Association.
- Matthew Clarke is Program Leader, International Development School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning, RMIT University, Melbourne.
 |
 |
Industrial Innovation and Environmental
Regulation: Developing Workable Solutions
Edited by Saeed Parto and Brent Herbert-Copley
What role should governments play in protecting the environment and controlling the impacts of industry? Do regulations benefit the environment, and how do they affect industrial innovation?
The contributors to this book examine a number of political and industrial trends and responses to these challenges. A useful set of case studies appraise environmental policies and comprehensive statements on environmental protection and sustainable development by numerous countries in the North and the South.
The book concludes that the complexities of environmental and economic relationships disallow universal solutions, and it illustrates the need for context-specific and non-linear perspectives on the role of regulatory measures in environmental innovation.
- Saeed Parto is a Research Fellow at the United Nations Univeristy Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Centre on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) and Adjunct at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo, Canada.
- Brent Herbert-Copley is the Director, Social and Economic Policy at the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, Canada.
 |
Humanitarian Diplomacy: Practitioners and their Craft
Edited by Larry Minear and Hazel Smith
Humanitarian professionals are on the front lines of today's internal armed conflicts, negotiating access through physical and diplomatic roadblocks to reach imperiled civilians.
They frequent the corridors of power, interceding with politicians and diplomats in countries wracked by violence, in capitals of donor governments that underwrite humanitarian work, and at the United Nations Security Council.
This volume provides a compendium of experiences presented and analyzed by 14 senior practitioners who led humanitarian operations in settings as diverse as the Balkans and Nepal, Somalia and East Timor, and across a time frame from the 1970s in Cambodia and 1980s in Lebanon to more recent engagement in Colombia and Iraq. Their unique experiences and insights from the field are framed by context-setting essays on the theory and practice of humanitarian diplomacy and on the ingredients of the craft as practiced by humanitarian professionals.
- Larry Minear is the Director of the Humanitarianism and War Project at Tufts University, USA.
- Hazel Smith is Professor of International Relations at the University of Warwick, UK.
 |
|
Urban Crisis: Culture and the Sustainability of Cities
Edited by M. Nadarajah and Ann Tomoko Yamamoto
Unprecedented urban growth makes sustainability in cities a crucial issue for policy makers, scholars and business leaders. This emerging urban crisis challenges environment-based and economic-based approaches to sustainability, and brings to the forefront the multi-faceted and critical role that culture plays in ensuring that cities are viable for future generations.
Culture provides fertile ground for new approaches to sustainable development at the local level. Urban Crisis: Culture and the Sustainability of Cities makes important contributions towards a theory on culture in sustainable cities, assesses the use of cultural indicators as a tool for policymakers, and includes useful case studies of Patan (Nepal), Penang (Malaysia), Cheongju (South Korea), and Kanazawa (Japan).
This book offers fresh insights into the role of culture in fostering community development, environmental awareness and balanced economic growth, and it will be of particular interest to students of urban studies, academics, and civil society groups working on urban issues.
- M. Nadarajah is the Secretary of the Asian Communication Network (ACN) based in St. John's University, Bangkok, Thailand.
- Ann Tomoko Yamamoto is a PhD candidate in urban engineering at the University of Tokyo, Japan.
© 2007 United Nations University