At a time that feels unprecedented in British politics – with unlawful prorogations of parliament, casual race-baiting by senior politicians, and a climate crisis that continues to be ignored – it’s easy to think these are unchartered waters for us, as a democracy.But Britain has seen political crises and far-right extremism before, just as it has witnessed regressive, heavy-handed governments. Much worse has been done, or allowed to be done, in the name of the people and eventuall...

Seventy years after the adoption of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UK is guilty of undermining the very principles of asylum, inhumanely detaining those seeking protection and ushering in sweeping changes that threaten to punish refugees at every turn.But the UK’s immigration system is not alone in committing such breaches of human rights. The fourth volume of Refugee Tales explores our present international environment, combining author re-tellings with first-hand accounts of in...

A collection of the best short stories from the Spread the Word Prize 2013.  Inspired by the theme of 'ritual', Edgeways contains new fiction from Bidisha, Toby Litt, Tania Hershman, Clare Sita Fisher, K J Orr, Saradha Soobrayen, Nick Black and Deirdre Shanahan. The collection is edited by Courttia Newland.  The stories collected in Edgeways are wide in their scope, told in a range of distinct and exciting contemporary voices. 

The superhero of comic books and blockbuster movies may be a quintessentially American invention, forever saving the world in skin-tight spandex. But the cultural DNA of the superhero can arguably be traced to a much older, more progressive, British tradition: the larger-than-life folk heroes of historical protests – General Ludd, Captain Swing, Lady Skimmington, and others; semi-fictional identities that ordinary protestors adopted, often dressing up in the process.In this unique ...

Bidisha Biswas explores the question of how a democratic state chooses between policies of coercion and accommodation when dealing with political violence by addressing an important, yet under examined, topic—India’ approach to internal conflicts. In Managing Conflicts in India, Biswas selects three cases of conflict: the separatist campaign in Punjab during the 1980s; the protracted insurgency in Kashmir; and attacks on the Indian state by left-wing extremists, also known as Maoists and N...

Tourism offers countless global locations, providing a multitude of sensory experiences. These include commercialised tourism products such as saunas and floatation tanks through to natural phenomenon such as mountains and wilderness destinations. Consequently, sensory elements are a curious concept within tourism because every destination provides a sensory experience of one kind or another. The first of its kind, this book examines holidays and tourism through sensory perceptions which e...

A decade after the discovery of the Higgs Boson, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN still leads the world in the search to uncover what the universe is made of, how it was formed, and what fate may lie in store for it. If there is such a thing as a ‘cutting edge’, it surely lies 100 metres below the Swiss-French border, at the point where the beams collide.As part of a unique collaboration, this book pairs a team of award-winning authors with CERN physicists to explore some of the di...

Whilst crop models have made significant progress in recent years, different models still diverge and struggle to predict the complex effects of genetic, environmental and management (G x E x M) variables in optimising crop production in the face of climate change.Current crop models: State-of-the-art and future developments provides a comprehensive overview of the major crop models and the ways they address these challenges. The book explores the development of major crop...

In recent years, interest in the large group of skilled immigrants coming from India to the United States has soared. However, this immigration is seen as being overwhelmingly male. Female migrants are depicted either as family migrants following in the path chosen by men, or as victims of desperation, forced into the migrant path due to economic exigencies.This book investigates the work trajectories and related assimilation experiences of independent Indian women who have chosen ...

E-Governance has been one of the strategic sectors of reform in India since late 1990s under the rubric of ‘good governance’ agenda promoted by International Organizations. As India’s policy focus changed towards economic liberalization, deregulation and privatization proliferating domestic and foreign investment, ICT (Information Communication Technology) has been one of the leading areas for such heightened investment. Consequently, there has been a burgeoning interest in deploying ICT, ...

This book is about Madeleine Slade (1892-1982) and Catherine Mary Heilemann (1901-1982), two English associates of Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948), known in India as Mira Behn and Sarala Behn. The odysseys of these women present a counternarrative to the forces of imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and globalized development. The book examines their extraordinary journey to India to work with Gandhi and their roles in India’s independence movement, their spiritual strivings, th...

Inspection is crucial to the management of ageing infrastructure. Visual information on structures is regularly collected but very little work exists on its organised and quantitative analysis, even though image processing can significantly enhance these inspection processes and transfer real financial and safety benefits to the managers, owners and users. Additionally, new opportunities exist in the fast evolving sectors of wind and wave energy to add value to image-basedinspection techni...