Megaprojects and Risk provides the first detailed examination of the phenomenon of megaprojects. It is a fascinating account of how the promoters of multi-billion dollar megaprojects systematically and self-servingly misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects approved and built. It shows, in unusual depth, how the formula for approval is an unhealthy cocktail of underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts and overvalued econ...

In Understanding the Social Economy, Jack Quarter, Laurie Mook, and Ann Armstrong integrate a wide array of organizations founded upon a social mission - social enterprises, nonprofits, co-operatives, credit unions, and community development associations - under the rubric of the 'social economy.' This framework facilitates a comprehensive study of Canada's social sector, an area often neglected in the business curricula despite the important role that these organizations play in ...

Here is a bracing deconstruction of the framework for understanding the world that is learned as gospel in Economics 101, regardless of its imaginary assumptions and misleading half-truths.Economism: an ideology that distorts the valid principles and tools of introductory college economics, propagated by self-styled experts, zealous lobbyists, clueless politicians, and ignorant pundits.In order to illuminate the fallacies of economism, James Kwak first offers a pri...

Cultural policy is changing. Traditionally, cultural policies have been concerned with providing financial support for the arts, for cultural heritage and for institutions such as museums and galleries. In recent years, around the world, interest has grown in the creative industries as a source of innovation and economic dynamism. This book argues that an understanding of the nature of both the economic and the cultural value created by the cultural sector is essential to good policy-makin...

The Tools of Government is the first professional guide to the principles and practices of public administration in an age when governments no longer provide many services--but arrange for others to do so. Characterized by extensive collaboration among levels of government and between government and the private sector, this new approach to solving public problems presents many new important issues. Comprehensive in scope, this new book offers a first hand look at the challenges fa...

When low-income city dwellers lack access to mainstream banking services, many end up turning to ‘fringe banks,’ such as cheque-cashers and pawnshops, for some or all of their financial transactions. This predicament of ‘financial exclusion’ – faced by those underserved by conventional financial institutions – is comprehensively examined in Jerry Buckland's powerful study, Hard Choices.The first account of the nature and causes of financial exclusion in Canada, Hard Ch...

Winner of the Porter Prize, this classic study thoroughly profiles the corporate elite of late twentieth-century Canada, within a global context. It traces the fundamental changes in the structure of corporate power in Canada since the mid-1970s and highlights such key issues as the place of Canadian corporate power in global context, the westward shift of Canadian corporate power, and the emergence of a North American corporate elite. The book opens with a survey of corporate power and disc...

With growing concern about the conditions facing low wage workers and new challenges to traditional forms of labor market protection, this book offers a timely analysis of the purpose and effectiveness of minimum wages in different European countries. Building on original industry case studies, the analysis goes beyond general debates about the relative merits of labor market regulation to reveal important national differences in the functioning of minimum wage systems and their integratio...

An international approach to the study and teaching of real estate is increasingly important in today’s global market. With chapters covering numerous countries and every continent, International Approaches to Real Estate Development introduces real estate development theory and practice to students and professionals in the comparative international context. The book provides readers with a global compendium written by an international team of experts and includes key features suc...

Over the last fifteen years, the deregulation of Britain's labour market has led to economic growth, employment opportunities, and a more diverse workforce: the 'fat years'. However, now as Britain faces its lean years with job cuts, rising unemployment, income insecurity, and related social strains, how can and should the government and key labour market policy makers ensure the labour market provides job opportunities and reasonable levels of social justice?The fundamental changes that h...

Offering a fresh look at the commonly accepted view of what constitutes good governance, Donald Nordberg explores the contexts of board decisions and draws upon his academic research and years of business and financial journalism in Europe, North America and Asia to provide a distinctive and pertinent contribution to the literature on corporate governance. The book:- Features 21 detailed case studies, drawn from international examples, to prompt discussion and analysis- Pro...

In principle the advanced, market-driven world in which we now live is fuelled by knowledge, information and transparency, but in practice the processes that produce this world systematically corrupt and denigrate knowledge: this is the powerful and provocative argument advanced by Colin Crouch in his latest exploration of societies on the road to post-democracy.Crouch shows that executives in profit-maximizing corporations have incentives to ignore or distort knowledge, especially...