Several of the most important and influential political economists of communication working today explore a rich mix of topics and issues that link work, policy studies, and research and theory about the public sphere to the heritage of political economy. Familiar but still exceedingly important topics in critical political economy studies are well represented here: market structures and media concentration, regulation and policy, technological impacts on particular media sectors, informat...

The word 'governance' is ubiquitous. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund make loans conditional on 'good governance'. Climate change and avian flu appear as issues of 'global governance'. The European Union issues a White Paper on 'Governance'. The U.S. Forest Service calls for 'collaborative governance'. What accounts for the pervasive use of the term 'governance' and to what does it refer? It has a bewildering set of answers. The word 'governance' is used in a variety of c...

Bilderberg People explores the hidden mechanisms of influence at work in the private world, and personal interactions, of the transnational power elite. It is not concerned with conspiracy theories; instead it is about certain fundamental forces that shape the world in which we live. These forces, with their power to bring about transitions in emotion and preference within, and beyond, the elite community have potentially profound implications for all of us.Through exclusi...

How public affairs are run depends upon the degree of authority and control central government decides to relinquish to regional and local governments, and the extent to which it favors citizen involvement in the governing process. Public administrators do not operate in a vacuum. The context within which decision-making takes place greatly influences public administrators approach to public issues. Consequently, what government decides to do and how it decides to carry it out affects the ...

The federal election campaign of 2005-06 offered the usual mix of lofty rhetoric, competing interests, and skullduggery. Nonetheless, this campaign laid the foundation for a major shift in Canadian politics, bringing the Conservative Party to power and changing the balance of opposition parties. Inside the NDP War Room takes readers behind the scenes to investigate the nature of credibility in the complex communicative game of election campaigns. James McLean considers the ways in which th...

A provocative look at the troubled present state of American higher education and a passionately argued and learned manifesto for its future.In Crisis on Campus, Mark C. Taylor—chair of the Department of Religion at Columbia University and a former professor at Williams College—expands on and refines the ideas presented in his widely read and hugely controversial 2009 New York Times op-ed. His suggestions for the ivory tower are both thought-provoking and rigorous...

The public sector is going through a period of fundamental change. Service delivery, policy making and policy processes are being carried out by new actors and organisations with new interests, methods and discourses, related to the emergence of new forms of governance.This timely book from bestselling author Stephen Ball and Carolina Junemann uses network analysis and interviews with key actors to address these changes, with a particular focus on education and the increasingly imp...

In a time when multinational corporations have become truly globalised, demands for global standards on their behaviour are increasingly difficult to dismiss. Work conditions in sweatshops, widespread destruction of the environment, and pharmaceutical trials in third world countries are only the tip of the iceberg.This timely collection of essays addresses the interface between the calls for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the demands for an extension of international hum...

The definitive policy overview of the book publishing industry in CanadaIn a thorough exploration of Canadas book industry, Ultra Libris provides a historical backdrop to understand modern events in book publishing. From the Massey Commission (1952) and the Ontario Royal Commission on Book Publishing (1971–72) to the explosion of national book publishing in the 1970s and the industry–government sparring over the next 30 years, Lorimer elucidates the necess...

“Has there ever been a better reason to shop?” asks an ad for the Product RED American Express card, telling members who use the card that buying “cappuccinos or cashmere” will help to fight AIDS in Africa. Cofounded in 2006 by the rock star Bono, Product RED has been a particularly successful example of a new trend in celebrity-driven international aid and development, one explicitly linked to commerce, not philanthropy.In Brand Aid, Lisa Ann Richey and Stefano Ponte offe...

This textbook offers a fresh approach to the study of comparative politics and public policy. Instead of concentrating on why countries differ, Learning From Comparative Public Policy explores how countries can learn from each other about the success and failure of policy initiatives. With its theory and practice focus, the lively narrative analyzes the cultural and resources problems involved in importing policies, and the roles of institutions, regulators, think tanks and expert...

A concise introduction to the key ideas and issues in the study of media economics, drawing on a broad range of case studies - from Amazon and Twitter, to Apple and Netflix - to illustrate how economic paradigms are not just theories, but provide important practical insights into how the media operates today.