Originally the concept of culture was proposed only for humans, stressing the importance of social influences on its dynamics and development. Although there is no question that all human groups have different diverse, complex, and rich cultures, a debate begun in the early 1950s raised the issue of animal culture and what it may mean for the uniqueness of human culture. This chapter argues tha…
Freud is not dead. Far from it. In the year of the 150th anniversary of his birth we can truly say that his ideas are undergoing a renaissance. Freud is everywhere. And especially in neuroscience, we are taking a new look at his work and concluding that it is “still the most coherent and intellectually satisfying view of the mind” (Kandel, 1998) that we have. (Mark Solms, 2006, last page) …
As we all know, information is power. Many of you may not think of accounting as a means to get key information and to stay in control of your business operation. You probably think of the world of accounting as a place with a language you don’t understand. You view it as a necessary evil that you must have around in order to present the necessary reports to your investors and supporting fin…
The Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Systems Analysis Guide provides a set of tools and methods to assess existing structures and capacities of national, district and local institutions with responsibilities for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in order to improve their effectiveness and the integration of DRM concerns into development planning, with particular reference to disaster-prone areas, …
For many parents, learning about new media technologies can seem like playing catch-up with their children. Teenagers, especially, are quick to learn new technologies: putting their music collection on iPods, texting on mobile phones, chatting on instant messaging services. They are also quick to drop a technology they think is old: the bad news for parents who’ve just gotten to grips with em…
Since 2007 the question of growth has plagued the British economy. Though, at the time of writing in the early summer of 2014, growth has returned, a pervasive anxiety about the solidity, stability and sustain- ability of that growth persists, even in the most hallowed of elite polit- ical circles. Thus, even the recently appointed Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, is concerned that…
Before discussing the pros and cons of regulation in general and financial regulation in particular, we have to understand what regulation is all about and what forms it takes. Although there are arguments for and against regulation in general (hence against and for deregulation), some arguments are type-specific. For example, environmental regula- tion is motivated by the desire to protect hum…
Despite the impressive rebound seen on European financial markets following Mario Draghi’s famous speech in late July 2012, European leaders still face formidable challenges. The restoration of some confidence on financial markets should not conceal the long-term challenges to make the European Monetary Union function better in future and to make it more resilient to shocks. Despite somewhat …
France has been widely acknowledged as the principal driving force behind European economic and monetary union (EMU). Every French president from Georges Pompidou onwards has placed the creation of EMU at the centre of France’s European policy. President François Mitterrand finally clinched the deal when, in December 1991, he secured German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s agreement at the Maas…
The purpose of this book is to move beyond a purely economic under- standing of the euro crisis and its likely aftermath by emphasizing the political foundations of markets. Our goals in doing so are threefold: first, to develop a holistic understanding of what caused the euro crisis, which incorporates political, ideational, institutional, as well as economic and financial factors; second, to …
This chapter provides a (necessarily) brief introduction to computer net- working concepts. For many applications of gawk to TCP/IP networking, we hope that this is enough. For more advanced tasks, you will need deeper background, and it may be necessary to switch to lower-level programming in C or C++. There are two real-life models for the way computers send messages to each other over a netw…
The rise of social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook over the past decade has been nothing short of phenomenal. Once regarded as nothing more than a passing "fad", these websites have grown to astronomical proportions; each website currently boasts 60+ million unique visitors each month. Certain businesses are beginning to notice the potential for reaching out to their target aud…
Why would anyone who does not work in the banking industry want to read a book about banking? The subject should be a bore. Savings accounts are not fashionable. Mortgages do not entertain. Most of us – well, apart from banking professionals and a few banking professors like myself – have better things to do than think about payment cards or credit transfers. All we want from banks is secur…
Remember that phrase from your own childhood? It’s still a valid question, but now, it comes with a twist: “Do you know where your kids are — and who they’re chatting with online?” Social networking sites have morphed into a mainstream medium for teens and adults. These sites encourage and enable people to exchange information about themselves, share pictures and videos, and use …
The European Union (EU) is facing a fundamental crisis, which especially affects the countries that take part in the single currency, the euro. The group is usually referred to as the eurozone, and when the ministers of finance from these countries meet they are referred to as the Euro Group. This group has its own president, currently Jean-Claude Juncker from Luxembourg. It can be seen as a su…
When dealing with ambiguous terms, the first duty of a writer is definition. The words 'industrial revolution in small letters-usually refer to that complex of technological innovations which, by substituting machines for human skill and inanimate power for human and animal force, brings about a shift from handicraft to manufacture and, so doing, gives birth to a modern economy. In this sense…