Oil palm is one of the most profitable commercial high-tree crops, and has undergone one of the highest rates of expansion in comparison with other crops in the tropical world. Nevertheless, the conditions under which oil palm plantations expand as well as their social and environmental implications are ambiguous, which makes palm oil one of the most controversial globally traded commodities. O…
The Himalaya are world-renowned for their exquisite mountain scenery, ancient traditions, and diverse ethnic groups that tenaciously inhabit this harsh yet sublime landscape. Home to the world's highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and some of its deepest gorges, the region is a trove of biological and cultural diversity. Providing a panoramic overview of contemporary land and life in the Ea…
This work is the result of research started in 2014, on the processes of urban transformations in Bamako Juba, Nairobi and Abidjan in relation to the pres-ence and security policies of UN missions and international aid. The results of this research highlight an uneven process of territoriality where humanitarian organisations operate.The focus of this work or…
After 50 years of debate on this crucial question, the evidence is increas-ingly strong in favor of “yes.” In the well-known study “Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance,”1 Gartenberg, Prat and Serafeim demonstrate, with a large data sample from more than 900 companies and half a million employees, that companies can achieve better results if they inc…
One of the most notable features of any survey of the history of energy regimes in the Americas over the past century is the “pendulum effect.” Anecdotal though the observation may be, it is clear that despite the broad and incremental transformational changes that have occurred in the global energy landscape over time, individual countries have un…
The underlying idea linking all contributions to this book is that multiple factors facilitate the emergence of programmatic political parties; they do not fit into a simple formula or a particular sequencing or hierarchy, and operate in ways that seem very contextual. Those influencing factors, as will be discussed further in the concluding chapter, can be categorized according to their facili…