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      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        January 2023

        The gift of narrative in medieval England

        by Nicholas Perkins

        This invigorating study places medieval romance narrative in dialogue with theories and practices of gift and exchange, opening new approaches to questions of storytelling, agency, gender and materiality in some of the most engaging literature from the Middle Ages. It argues that the dynamics of the gift are powerfully at work in romances: through exchanges of objects and people; repeated patterns of love, loyalty and revenge; promises made or broken; and the complex effects that time works on such objects, exchanges and promises. Ranging from the twelfth century to the fifteenth, and including close discussions of poetry by Chaucer, the Gawain-Poet and romances in the Auchinleck Manuscript, this book will prompt new ideas and debate amongst students and scholars of medieval literature, as well as anyone curious about the pleasures that romance narratives bring.

      • Trusted Partner
        December 2015

        Gift of the Dark Mother Earth

        by Can Xue

        Gift of the Dark Mother Earth, the latest novel by Can Xue, is a profound metaphor of her hometown. It follows her usual magical style in the sense that it vividly unfolds the complex and delicate inner world of the characters. The story takes place in the remote Wuliqu School, with such distinctive characters as Teacher Meiyong, Zhang Danzhi, Yutian, Xiao Man, Uncle Yun and Sha Men presented one after another. The personality and human nature exposed through unique dialogues enable the readers to feel a return to simplicity so that they want to explore human soul and nature and start in-depth reading and thinking. The book depicts petty matters in a great age. The author’s ambition is to create a feeling for the pattern of the whole universe through the structure of an ordinary tree leaf, and to unify the arbitrarily split world through the narration of various folk sundries so that different characters can all become the center of this unity and their performance can have a universality. As the only Chinese writer who has won the Best Translated Book Award in the United States, Can Xue was nominated for the foreign novel prize of The Independent of the UK and shortlisted in the Neustadt International Prize for Literature of the US. As the Chinese woman writer, whose works have been translated and published the most abroad, Can Xue has been called the most creative Chinese writer by overseas critics.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        August 2020

        Tourism Planning and Development in Latin America

        by Carlos Monterrubio, Konstantinos Andriotis, Dimitrios Stylidis

        Despite the significance of tourism to the economic, social and environmental structures of Central and South America, little has been documented in the English literature about tourism in this sub-region, which in terms of population size, ranks fourth in the world with 652 million inhabitants. The first of its kind, this book focuses exclusively on tourism development, planning and their impacts in a wide number of Central and South American countries. It covers experiences, challenges, successful and unsuccessful stories, specific cases, and other tourism related issues of twelve countries in total. Each chapter is authored by scholars who have done extensive research on tourism in the countries covered. This book:Examines the impact of tourism development and planning within Latin American countries.Takes a multidisciplinary approach including Anthropology, Development, Economics, Ecology, Policy, Sociology and Tourism Planning and Management.Is the first book in English to offer an insight into extensive research undertaken within the region.This book will provide a valuable insight for tourism researchers, practitioners and decision-makers in private and public organisations, not only from the regions of Central, South and North America, but also individuals from other parts of the world who want a more encompassing view of global tourism. Table of contents Chapter 1: Strategies for regional tourism development in Argentina. A path with new initiatives for tourism dispersal policies Chapter 2: The commitment to sustainable tourism and the development of indigenous tourism in Chile Chapter 3: Tourism development in Colombia: between conflict and peace Chapter 4: Ecotourism development in Costa Rica Chapter 5: The challenges of natural and cultural heritages of Galapagos and Quito, Ecuador Chapter 6: Tourism development in Mexico Chapter 7: Panama, the "affordable exotic destination": planned tourism success and its unplanned consequences Chapter 8: The impacts of tourism in economic growth and development in Uruguay Chapter 9: Peru and Nicaragua: tourism development in postconflict eras Chapter 10: Ecuador and Panama: Lifestyle mobilities, the golden years and the quest for paradise

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        February 2018

        Sustainable Bamboo Development

        by Zhu Zhaohua, Jin Wei

        This book presents over 40 cases of bamboo development across 22 major bamboo-industry countries and explores the knowledge gained from their successes and failures. It synthesises experiences and exchanges with country experts from international training courses and consultations, study tours, and seminars. Each case includes observations and summaries of discussions related to the development of bamboo-based industries in a healthy, sustainable way, and the facilitation of strategic and balanced development of bamboo in different global regions. Industrial and artisanal bamboo growing and processing is expanding worldwide and this book brings together key experiences to help inform future developments. This book provides an analysis of bamboo plant features, including strong renewability, fast-growing, and high biomass production. It also reviews important ecological functions of bamboos, such as water and soil conservation, carbon sink and storage, and adaptation to climate change, as well as addressing the diversified culture of bamboo and key issues affecting the sector. Sustainable Bamboo Development: - Is authored by an internationally recognised leading expert in the growth and use of bamboo - Takes a holistic view, covering technical, socio-economic, policy, cultural and business development - Provides practical knowledge to guide the development of bamboo sectors - Gives a clear idea and rich examples of what has been attempted in many countries - Acts as a roadmap for using bamboo as a poverty reduction and environmental security tool Highly illustrated and in full colour throughout, this book is an essential resource for all those interested in bamboo, from private sector investors to governmental and development agencies, academic researchers and students.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        November 2020

        Tourism in Development: Reflective Essays

        by Peter U C Dieke, Brian E M King, Richard Sharpley, Ali Thompson

        This book: - comprises reflective essays written by internationally-ranked scholars and tourism consultants with extensive experience, particularly in the developing world countries - considers extant themes, issues and challenges related to tourism and development - offers a critical and contemporary perspective on tourism's significance and role in development.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        The School Day Gifts

        China Story Picture Books

        by Xu Lu

        China Story Picture Books is the first set of children's picture books launched by the Bingxin Award Committee. This set of books covers the works of seven Bingxin Award-winning writers of different ages including children's literature masters and promising young writers. The illustrations are full of traditional Chinese cultural elements such as dragon lantern dance, paper cutting, oil paper umbrella, and bamboo. Powerful painters at home and abroad are invited to do illustrations, which brings interesting fusion and collision of Chinese and foreign cultures to the books. In addition to the original illustrations, the stories are more touching. Every child can harvest the courage and wisdom for growing up from these stories.   The series consists of 7 picture books: The Dragon Lantern, The Path of Golden Flowers, The Child in Three-Story Attic, The School Day Gifts, The Secret of Crossing, The Slope of Sisters.   The School Day Gifts tells the story of the growth of a young umbrella maker. After graduating from high school, the protagonist became an umbrella maker, but he had no courage to go back to the school celebration day. Daddy saw what was on his mind and secretly helped him prepare gifts for my teachers and classmates, which were dozens of old-fashioned oilpaper umbrellas made of golden bamboo bones and oilpaper. Eventually he proudly participated in the school day and recited the poet Ai Qing's The Umbrella.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2018

        Gender, migration and the global race for talent

        by Anna Boucher

      • Trusted Partner
        April 2022

        Tourism Planning and Development in Western Europe

        by Konstantinos Andriotis, Carla Pinto Cardoso, Dimitrios Stylidis

        For many decades, Western European countries have undertaken diverse pathways in tourism development and planning. Most have experienced fast or even unlimited growth, resulting in overtourism and, now, the introduction of policies that respect the limits of communities and the sustainability of their resources. Focusing exclusively on tourism development, planning and policy, this book draws together new voices to discuss issues across Belgium, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It: - Provides both successful and unsuccessful case studies to illuminate real, practical solutions, developed by tourism scholars who are experts in their researched context countries. - Adopts a range of methodological approaches to cover diverse and less-covered areas such as industrial tourism, saltpans, natural and cultural heritage, and micro-destinations. - Considers post-COVID tourism and the significant role of tourism stakeholders in Western Europe's re-development. An invaluable collection for policy-makers, researchers and academics, this book is also an insightful source of engaging contemporary case studies for use in the classroom.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Mister Pillow and the Stars

        by Dariia Bila

        Mr. Pillow is the best friend of all children. He is always there, especially at night, when the most important thing is to cuddle in his warm arms and listen to a bedtime story. In the book "Mr. Pillow and the Stars", the chubby and comical main character tells children about how he went on an incredible space adventure. He plays an idea generator, inventor, engineer, and astronaut. He assures children that they can make their dreams come true, and that little hicups on the way are only small steps on the way to the stars. This book promotes growth mindset. The explosion of colors, the emphasis on illustrationsa that can be explored endlessly, and the unique talent of the theatre designer to make each page filled with action, makes this book the best gift for young explorers.

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2022

        The History and Evolution of Tourism

        by Prokopis A Christou

        This book provides an overview of the history and evolution of tourism to the present, and speculates on possible and probable change into the future. It discusses significant travel, tourism and hospitality events while referring to tourism-related notions and theories that have been developed since the beginnings of tourism. Even so, its scope moves beyond simply a detailed historical account of facts and events from the past and attempts to bridge these with contemporary issues, challenges and concerns, so that readers can connect tourism past with the present and future, which helps with decision making and even the development of new theories. Despite its academic orientation, the book is written in an approachable style enabling a clear and solid understanding of how tourism has evolved through the centuries. It uses several practitioner-linked, real-life examples and case studies derived from organisations and enterprises across all aspects of the tourism, travel and events industries. This book will be of great interest to academics, practitioners and students from a wide variety of disciplines, including tourism, hospitality, and events, sociology, psychology and human geography.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        May 2021

        Development, architecture, and the formation of heritage in late twentieth-century Iran

        A vital past

        by Ali Mozaffari, Nigel Westbrook

        This book analyses the use of the past and the production of heritage through architectural design in the developmental context of Iran, a country that has endured radical cultural and political shifts in the past five decades. Offering a trans-disciplinary approach toward complex relationship between architecture, development, and heritage, Mozaffari and Westbrook suggest that transformations in developmental contexts like Iran must be seen in relation to global political and historical exchanges, as well as the specificities of localities. The premise of the book is that development has been a globalizing project that originated in the West. Transposed into other contexts, this project instigates a renewed historical consciousness and imagination of the past. The authors explore the rise of this consciousness in architecture, examining the theoretical context to the debates, international exchanges made in architectural congresses in the 1970s, the use of housing as the vehicle for everyday heritage, and forms of symbolic public architecture that reflect monumental time.

      • Trusted Partner
        February 2024

        Nature-based Tourism and Wellbeing

        Impacts and Future Outlook

        by Federico Niccolini, Iride Azara, Eleni Michopoulou, James Barborak, Alessio Cavicchi

        All around the world, as growing numbers of tourists and recreational visitors flock to protected and other natural areas stimulated by a renewed search for physical, mental, and even spiritual health and wellbeing, different practices and behaviours emerge. This book brings together experiences and perspectives from many countries around the world. On the demand side, the experiences are united by the desire of tourists to find a real and regenerating connection in nature. On the supply side, designing and managing tourist systems that preserve natural capital in good condition requires great professionalism to dynamically maintain a fragile and delicate balance between tourists, local communities, and nature. By understanding the attitudes and emerging norms of behaviour within the context of nature-based tourism, we can begin to sketch a roadmap to enable more holistic, enjoyable, healthy and responsible visitor experiences; facilitate ecosystem conservation; contribute to the mental and physical wellbeing of tourists and outdoor recreationists; and build sustainable economies and resilient destinations and livelihoods. This book is of great relevance for academic researchers, advanced tourism and conservation students, and practitioners working in nature-based tourism and conservation, especially those with a focus on natural destinations, as well as those interested in consumer behaviour, business and management, recreation, and sustainable tourism development.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        September 2022

        Tourism Planning and Development in Eastern Europe

        by Hania Janta, Konstantinos Andriotis, Dimitrios Stylidis

        Three decades ago, the hypermobility of tourists from the days before the global pandemic was truly unthinkable in Eastern Europe. The borders were closed and the region isolated from the rest of the world. Despite an extraordinary transformation of tourism in the area since, Eastern Europe remains under-explored in tourism studies. This book fills the gap by outlining contemporary strategies for tourism development in post-socialist countries, considering the opportunities and challenges as well as the initiatives and approaches to sustainability. Reviewing tourism development and planning across Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Romania, this book: - Offers a contemporary and insightful outlook of Eastern Europe tourism, with a wide range of case studies from inter-disciplinary and single-disciplinary perspectives; - Uses varied methodological approaches and research methods, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, informal conversations, document analysis, netnography, questionnaires and secondary data, to form an interesting and diverse treatise; - Considers post-COVID tourism and the significant role of tourism stakeholders in its re-development. Illuminating the various economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts that tourism has created, this book is a valuable reference for researchers and students of tourism and related disciplines, as well as anyone interested in the development of Eastern Europe.

      • Trusted Partner
        May 2021

        Escapades in Evolution

        Of humans, chimps and other capers of nature

        by Matthias Glaubrecht

        Humans are rapidly changing the conditions of evolution, and while many species have not yet been discovered, the extinction of numerous species is becoming more and more dramatic. In this book, Matthias Glaubrecht contrasts the impending “end of evolution”, of which the evolutionary biologist writes in his bestseller of the same name, with the beauty, diversity and also the whims of nature. In 36 short chapters, the zoologist presents the animal and the all-tooanimal from the curiosity cabinet of evolution, easy to understand and with a good touch of humour – from dinosaurs with four wings to the annual new “Minnelied” hit of the humpback whale to the women’s communes of bonobos who use sex as a form of social bonding.

      • Trusted Partner

        The Best Gift For a Child---How to Be a Positive Parent

        by LI Zhaoliang

        The best education is the most active and active education. This book contains five interactive parts: the first part is the scientific concept, theory and principle of active education. This is the level of active education "road"; the second part is about the positive psychology of children, virtue, strengths, etc. The quality and cultivation of the quality of the child, specifically include self-esteem, values, autonomy, gratitude, optimism and other content; Part III is an effective method and practical technology for active family education, including children's good habits, learning Guidance strategy, mobile phone use management method, how to grasp the education scale, parent-child communication skills, correctly praise the child's method, etc., this is the level of "surgery" in the active family education; the fourth part is 0 ~ 18 years old four different age stages Psychological growth demand and mental care method; the fifth part is related to the child's happiness. In response to the key, difficulties and pain points of family education, the author combines the latest research results of positive psychology, conduct scientific analysis and professional explanations, give effective methods and practical technology, both professional, and unrestrained practical Sex, is the latest active family education in China, which has a very important guidance for how parents educate children.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2023

        Creating character

        Theories of nature and nurture in Victorian sensation fiction

        by Helena Ifill

        This book explores the ways in which the two leading sensation authors of the 1860s, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wilkie Collins, engaged with nineteenth-century ideas about personality formation and the extent to which it can be influenced either by the subject or by others. Innovative readings of seven sensation novels explore how they employ and challenge Victorian theories of heredity, degeneration, inherent constitution, education, upbringing and social circumstance. Far from presenting a reductive depiction of 'nature' versus 'nurture', Braddon and Collins show the creation of character to be a complex interplay of internal and external factors. Drawing on material ranging from medical textbooks, to sociological treatises, to popular periodicals, Creating character shows how sensation authors situated themselves at the intersections of established and developing, conservative and radical, learned and sensationalist thought about how identity could be made and modified.

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