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EBookClubs

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Book An Uncooperative Commodity

Download or read book An Uncooperative Commodity written by Karen J. Bakker and published by Oxford Geographical and Enviro. This book was released on 2003 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The privatization of water supply is an emotive and controversial topic. The 'British model' of water privatization is unique: no other country has entirely privatized its water supply and sewerage systems. This book analyzes the socio-economic and environmental dimensions in privatization in England and Wales. It examines the implications of privatization for consumers, environmental management, and the water supply industry.

Book Privatizing Water

Download or read book Privatizing Water written by Karen Bakker and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water supply privatization was emblematic of the neoliberal turn in development policy in the 1990s. Proponents argued that the private sector could provide better services at lower costs than governments; opponents questioned the risks involved in delegating control over a life-sustaining resource to for-profit companies. Private-sector activity was most concentrated—and contested—in large cities in developing countries, where the widespread lack of access to networked water supplies was characterized as a global crisis. In Privatizing Water, Karen Bakker focuses on three questions: Why did privatization emerge as a preferred alternative for managing urban water supply? Can privatization fulfill its proponents' expectations, particularly with respect to water supply to the urban poor? And, given the apparent shortcomings of both privatization and conventional approaches to government provision, what are the alternatives? In answering these questions, Bakker engages with broader debates over the role of the private sector in development, the role of urban communities in the provision of "public" services, and the governance of public goods. She introduces the concept of "governance failure" as a means of exploring the limitations facing both private companies and governments. Critically examining a range of issues—including the transnational struggle over the human right to water, the "commons" as a water-supply-management strategy, and the environmental dimensions of water privatization—Privatizing Water is a balanced exploration of a critical issue that affects billions of people around the world.

Book The Age of Commodity

    Book Details:
  • Author : David McDonald
  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Release : 2012-06-25
  • ISBN : 1136555048
  • Pages : 320 pages

Download or read book The Age of Commodity written by David McDonald and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-06-25 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As globalization and market liberalization march forward unabated the global commons continue to be commodified and privatized at a rapid pace. In this global process, the ownership, sale and supply of water is increasingly a flashpoint for debates and conflict over privatization, and nowhere is the debate more advanced or acute than in Southern Africa. The Age of Commodity provides an overview of the debates over water in the region including a conceptual overview of water 'privatization', how it relates to human rights, macro-economic policy and GATS. The book then presents case studies of important water privatization initiatives in the region, drawing out crucial themes common to water privatization debates around the world including corruption, gender equity and donor conditionalities. This book is powerful and necessary reading in our new age of commodity.

Book Precious Commodity

    Book Details:
  • Author : Martin V. Melosi
  • Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
  • Release : 2011-04-30
  • ISBN : 0822977761
  • Pages : 305 pages

Download or read book Precious Commodity written by Martin V. Melosi and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2011-04-30 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an essential resource, water has been the object of warfare, political wrangling, and individual and corporate abuse. It has also become an object of commodification, with multinational corporations vying for water supply contracts in many countries. In Precious Commodity, Martin V. Melosi examines water resources in the United States and addresses whether access to water is an inalienable right of citizens, and if government is responsible for its distribution as a public good. Melosi provides historical background on the construction, administration, and adaptability of water supply and wastewater systems in urban America. He cites budgetary constraints and the deterioration of existing water infrastructures as factors leading many municipalities to seriously consider the privatization of their water supply. Melosi also views the role of government in the management of, development of, and legal jurisdiction over America's rivers and waterways for hydroelectric power, flood control, irrigation, and transportation access. Looking to the future, he compares the costs and benefits of public versus private water supply, examining the global movement toward privatization.

Book Unbottled

    Book Details:
  • Author : Daniel Jaffee
  • Publisher : Univ of California Press
  • Release : 2023-09-19
  • ISBN : 0520306627
  • Pages : 379 pages

Download or read book Unbottled written by Daniel Jaffee and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-09-19 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An exploration of bottled water's impact on social justice and sustainability, and how diverse movements are fighting back. In just four decades, bottled water has transformed from a luxury niche product into a $300 billion global industry. It sits at the convergence of a mounting ecological crisis of single-use plastic waste and climate change, a social crisis of drinking water affordability, and a struggle over the fate of public water systems. 'Unbottled' examines the vibrant movements that are questioning the need for bottled water and challenging its growth in North America and worldwide. Drawing on extensive interviews with participants in a range of controversies--from bottled water's role in unsafe tap water crises to groundwater extraction in rural communities--Daniel Jaffee asks what this commodity's meteoric growth means for social inequality, sustainability, and the human right to water. Clear and compelling, it assesses the prospects for the movements fighting plastic water and working to ensure water justice for all"--Page 4 of printed paper wrapper.

Book The Critique of Commodification

Download or read book The Critique of Commodification written by Christoph Hermann and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Critique of Commodification -- A Theory of Commodification -- Politics of Commodification -- Consequences of Commodification -- Limits of Commodification -- Rediscovering Use Value -- Alternatives to Commodification: Use Value Society.

Book What Is Water

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jamie Linton
  • Publisher : UBC Press
  • Release : 2010-07-01
  • ISBN : 077485913X
  • Pages : 352 pages

Download or read book What Is Water written by Jamie Linton and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We all know what water is, and we often take it for granted. Because it seems so natural, we seldom question how we see water. But the spectre of a worldwide water crisis suggests that there might be something fundamentally wrong with the way we think about water. Jamie Linton dives into the history of the modern concept of water, that water can be stripped of its wider environmental, social, and cultural contexts and reduced to a scientific abstraction – to mere H20. This abstraction has given modern society licence to dam, divert, and manipulate water with impunity, giving rise to a growing suite of problems. Linton argues that part of the solution to the water crisis involves deliberately reinvesting water with social content.

Book The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography

Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography written by Trevor J. Barnes and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-09-26 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography presents students and researchers with a comprehensive overview of the field, put together by a prestigious editorial team, with contributions from an international cast of prominent scholars. Offers a fully revised, expanded, and up-to-date overview, following the successful and highly regarded Companion to Economic Geography published by Blackwell a decade earlier, providing a comprehensive assessment of the field Takes a prospective as well as retrospective look at the field, reviewing recent developments, recurrent challenges, and emerging agendas Incorporates diverse perspectives (in terms of specialty, demography and geography) of up and coming scholars, going beyond a focus on Anglo-American research Encourages authors and researchers to engage with and contextualize their situated perspectives Explores areas of overlap, dialogues, and (potential) engagement between economic geography and cognate disciplines

Book Degrowth

    Book Details:
  • Author : Giacomo D'Alisa
  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Release : 2014-11-13
  • ISBN : 1134449771
  • Pages : 249 pages

Download or read book Degrowth written by Giacomo D'Alisa and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Degrowth is a rejection of the illusion of growth and a call to repoliticize the public debate colonized by the idiom of economism. It is a project advocating the democratically-led shrinking of production and consumption with the aim of achieving social justice and ecological sustainability. This overview of degrowth offers a comprehensive coverage of the main topics and major challenges of degrowth in a succinct, simple and accessible manner. In addition, it offers a set of keywords useful forintervening in current political debates and for bringing about concrete degrowth-inspired proposals at different levels - local, national and global. The result is the most comprehensive coverage of the topic of degrowth in English and serves as the definitive international reference. More information at: vocabulary.degrowth.org View the author spotlight featuring events and press related to degrowth at http://t.co/k9qbQpyuYp.

Book The Financialisation of Power

Download or read book The Financialisation of Power written by Sarah Bracking and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-05 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The financial crash of 2008 led people all over the world to ask how far financiers are in control of our lives. To what extent does what they do with our money affect our everyday lives? This book asks whether the crisis, and subsequent use of public subsidies to help the international economy recover, was a unique event, or a symptom of a wider malaise where financiers have effectively usurped the power of governments and are running the political economy themselves. The Financialisation of Power in Africa argues that growth is not always a good thing. The development of more derivatives and faster financial exchanges are draining businesses of investment capital rather than serving to supply it; applying financial logic does not save nature or protect biodiversity and other species. This book outlines the concept of financialisation and how it has been used in various ways to explain the post-2008 crisis and global political economy. There is a particular focus on these issues in reference to Africa, which has a particular dependence on international money. It takes the perspective of the modern state, exploring how the political economy of development actually works in relation to African governance. This book is of interest to students of international development and political economy and is a key source for policy makers interested in African studies and economic development.

Book Health Care Under the Knife

Download or read book Health Care Under the Knife written by Howard Waitzkin and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disobedience : doctor workers unite! / Howard Waitzkin -- Becoming employees : the deprofessionalization and emerging social class position of health professionals / Matt Anderson -- The degradation of medical labor and the meaning of quality in health care / Gordon Schiff and Sarah Winch -- The political economy of health reform / David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler -- The transformation of the medical industrial complex : financialization, the corporate sector, and monopoly capital / Matt Anderson and Robb Burlage -- The pharmaceutical industry in the context of contemporary capitalism / Joel Lexchin -- Obamacare : the neoliberal model comes home to roost in the United States, if we let it / Howard Waitzkin and Ida Hellander -- Austerity and health / Adam Gaffney and Carles Muntaner -- Imperialism's health component / Howard Waitzkin and Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar -- U.S. philanthrocapitalism and the global health agenda : the Rockefeller and Gates foundations, past and present / Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Judith Richter -- Resisting the imperial order and building an alternative future in medicine and public health / Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar and Howard Waitzkin -- The failure of Obamacare and a revision of the single payer proposal after a quarter century of struggle / Adam Gaffney, David Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler -- Overcoming pathological normalcy : mental health challenges in the coming transformation / Carl Ratner -- Confronting the social and environmental determinants of health / Carles Muntaner and Rob Wallace -- Conclusion : moving beyond capitalism for our health / Adam Gaffney and Howard Waitzkin

Book The Right to Water

Download or read book The Right to Water written by Farhana Sultana and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The right to clean water has been adopted by the United Nations as a basic human right. Yet how such universal calls for a right to water are understood, negotiated, experienced and struggled over remain key challenges. The Right to Water elucidates how universal calls for rights articulate with local historical geographical contexts, governance, politics and social struggles, thereby highlighting the challenges and the possibilities that exist. Bringing together a unique range of academics, policy-makers and activists, the book analyzes how struggles for the right to water have attempted to translate moral arguments over access to safe water into workable claims. This book is an intervention at a crucial moment into the shape and future direction of struggles for the right to water in a range of political, geographic and socio-economics contexts, seeking to be pro-active in defining what this struggle could mean and how it might be taken forward in a far broader transformative politics. The Right to Water engages with a range of approaches that focus on philosophical, legal and governance perspectives before seeking to apply these more abstract arguments to an array of concrete struggles and case studies. In so doing, the book builds on empirical examples from Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and the European Union.

Book Naturalizing Inequality

    Book Details:
  • Author : Michela Marcatelli
  • Publisher : University of Arizona Press
  • Release : 2021-10-05
  • ISBN : 0816539502
  • Pages : 193 pages

Download or read book Naturalizing Inequality written by Michela Marcatelli and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book discusses the reproduction and legitimization of racial inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. Michela Marcatelli unravels this inequality paradox through an ethnography of water in a rural region of the country. She documents how calls to save nature have only deepened and naturalized inequality.

Book Green Politics

    Book Details:
  • Author : Dustin Mulvaney
  • Publisher : SAGE
  • Release : 2011-06-28
  • ISBN : 1412996791
  • Pages : 537 pages

Download or read book Green Politics written by Dustin Mulvaney and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2011-06-28 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colorful bracelets, funky brooches, and beautiful handmade beads: young crafters learn to make all these and much more with this fantastic step-by-step guide. In 12 exciting projects with simple steps and detailed instructions, budding fashionistas create their own stylish accessories to give as gifts or add a touch of personal flair to any ensemble. Following the successful "Art Smart" series, "Craft Smart" presents a fresh, fun approach to four creative skills: knitting, jewelry-making, papercrafting, and crafting with recycled objects. Each book contains 12 original projects to make, using a range of readily available materials. There are projects for boys and girls, carefully chosen to appeal to readers of all abilities. A special "techniques and materials" section encourages young crafters to try out their own ideas while learning valuable practical skills.

Book Global Political Ecology

Download or read book Global Political Ecology written by Richard Peet and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-12-17 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is caught in the mesh of a series of environmental crises. So far attempts at resolving the deep basis of these have been superficial and disorganized. Global Political Ecology links the political economy of global capitalism with the political ecology of a series of environmental disasters and failed attempts at environmental policies. This critical volume draws together contributions from twenty-five leading intellectuals in the field. It begins with an introductory chapter that introduces the readers to political ecology and summarizes the books main findings. The following seven sections cover topics on the political ecology of war and the disaster state; fuelling capitalism: energy scarcity and abundance; global governance of health, bodies, and genomics; the contradictions of global food; capital’s marginal product: effluents, waste, and garbage; water as a commodity, a human right, and power; the functions and dysfunctions of the global green economy; political ecology of the global climate, and carbon emissions. This book contains accounts of the main currents of thought in each area that bring the topics completely up-to-date. The individual chapters contain a theoretical introduction linking in with the main themes of political ecology, as well as empirical information and case material. Global Political Ecology serves as a valuable reference for students interested in political ecology, environmental justice, and geography.

Book Valuing Development  Environment and Conservation

Download or read book Valuing Development Environment and Conservation written by Sarah Bracking and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-17 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Policy-makers are increasingly trying to assign economic values to areas such as ecologies, the atmosphere, even human lives. These new values, assigned to areas previously considered outside of economic systems, often act to qualify, alter or replace former non-pecuniary values. Valuing Development, Environment and Conservation looks to explore the complex interdependencies, contradictions and trade-offs that can take place between economic values and the social, environmental, political and ethical systems that inform non-monetary valuation processes. Using rich empirical material, the book explores the processes of valuation, their components, calculative technologies, and outcomes in different social, ecological and conservation domains. The book gives reasons for why economic calculation tends to dominate in practice, but also presents new insights on how the disobedient materiality of things and the ingenuity of human and non-human agencies can combine and frustrate the dominant economic models within calculative processes. This book highlights the tension between, on the one hand, a dominant model that emphasises technical and ‘universalising’ criteria, and on the other hand, valuation practice in specific local contexts which is more likely to negotiate criteria that are plural, incommensurable and political. This book is perfect for researchers and students within development studies, environment, geography, politics, sociology and anthropology who are looking for new insights into how processes of valuation take place in the 21st century, and with what consequential outcomes.

Book Constructing Change  A Political Economy of Housing and Electricity Provision in Turkey

Download or read book Constructing Change A Political Economy of Housing and Electricity Provision in Turkey written by Ezgi B. Ünsal and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Constructing Change, Ezgi B. Unsal explores the commodification of social provision as a defining feature of modern world economy, by using the case studies of electricity and housing provision in Turkey.