Focused on the emergence of US President Donald Trump, the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, and the recruitment of Islamic State foreign fighters from Western Muslim communities, this book explores the ways in which the decay and corruption of key social institutions has created a vacuum of intellectual and moral guidance for working people and deprived them of hope and an…
While the demand for crop products continues to increase strongly, agricultural productivity is threatened by various stress factors, often associated with global warming. To sustain and improve yield, it is necessary to understand how plants respond to various stresses, and to use the generated knowledge in modern breeding programs. Most knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms associated …
This book unveils the significant impact of the European integration process on the political thinking of European citizens. With close attention to the interrelation between social and political divisions, it shows that an integrated Europe promotes consensus but also propagates growing dissent among its citizens, with both objective inequalities and the subjective perception of these inequali…
Focused on the emergence of US President Donald Trump, the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, and the recruitment of Islamic State foreign fighters from Western Muslim communities, this book explores the ways in which the decay and corruption of key social institutions has created a vacuum of intellectual and moral guidance for working people and deprived them of hope and an…
A highly informative report on Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands, We Need Two Worlds is a clear and well-structured dissertation which presents a considerable amount of new material to existing knowledge of Chinese associations and their role in the Netherlands. The situation in Amsterdam is comparable to Chinese societies in other major cities, e.g. New York and London. This comprehensive …
The starting point of this book is the acknowledgement that on one side Chinese individuals, freer from the constraints of the State, have to rely on their own efforts for their well-being and, on the other side, in some circumstances, they gather together to defend their interests. The individualisation of society goes hand in hand with the collective movements that emerged as a result of indi…
Maritime trade is the backbone of the world’s economy. Around ninety percent of all goods are transported by ship, and since World War II shipbuilding has undergone major changes in response to new commercial pressures and opportunities. Early British dominance, for example, was later undermined by competition from the Japanese, who have since been overtaken by South Korea and, most recently,…
The postwar histories of Paris and Amsterdam have been significantly defined by the notion of the “underground” as both a material and metaphorical space. Examining the underground traffic between the two cities, this book interrogates the countercultural histories of Paris and Amsterdam in the mid to late-twentieth century. Shuttling between Paris and Amsterdam, as well as between postwar …
The author presents an empirical study on Vietnam’s national competitiveness by using mixed methods research (qualitative and quantitative) with a combination of hard and soft data. The result shows that production resources (human, infrastructure, capital and natural resources) have played the most important role in improving competitiveness, productivity and living standard in Vietnam in th…
European politics has provided clear signals: the next round in the process of EU enlargement with the accession of the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) will come. Since expectations concerning the costs and benefits of integration are varied, it is our aim to contribute to this discussion by undertaking an empirical assessment of integration. Firstly the extent of potential free l…