Hartmut Hirsch-Kreinsen

David Jacobson

This very valuable book collects together excellent empirical essays on what amounts to a silent majority in advanced industrial societies: low and medium tech manufacturing industries. Such industries employ more people and make a larger contribution to aggregate value creation than their more lauded high-tech counterparts and moreover, they constitute extremely important customer industries for such higher tech producers. They may be neglected, but they are not going away indeed, this volume shows that they are growing and adapting to the new competitive challenges of globalization. Attending to the dynamics of innovation and change in this large sector is crucial for understanding processes of social and economic restructuring in Europe today. The essays in this volume are the first place to look for insight into this extremely important area of political economic life in Europe. Gary Herrigel, University of Chicago, US Innovation in Low-Tech Firms and Industries challenges the currently fashionable notion that the advent of a knowledge-based economy demands that all social resources should be diverted to high-technology industries. Hirsch-Kreinsen and Jacobson point out these constitute a small part of even the most advanced economies. Attention has been diverted from the important innovation processes which occur in low and medium technology (LMT) sectors. This volume calls on us to achieve a much better and wiser balance in our industrial policy. Terrence McDonough, National University of Ireland, Galway The authors of this book make an urgently needed provocative point: ordinary engineering and technology ( low-tech ) continue to be of greater importance, in our knowledge society , than high-tech activities, and they may be similarly demanding by the competence they require and produce. This counteracts the exaggerated hype about high-tech firms or activities. The high-tech classification itself is highly arbitrary and often superficial. The authors show in what way low-tech activities and firms are important, and how they can be cultivated to buttress the economic strength of industrial and post-industrial nations. Researchers and policymakers, please take note! Arndt Sorge, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Germany and University of Groningen, The Netherlands It is a general understanding that the advanced economies are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation into knowledge-based societies. There is a firm belief that this is based on the development of high-tech industries. Correspondingly, in this scenario low-tech sectors appear to be less important. A critique of this widely held belief is the starting point of this book. It is often overlooked that many of the current innovation activities are linked to developments inside the realm of low-tech. Thus the general objective of the book is to contribute to a discussion concerning the relevance of low-tech industries for industrial innovativeness in the emerging knowledge economy. Providing examples of both theoretical and empirical research in this area, Innovation in Low-tech Firms and Industries will be of great interest to postgraduate students and academic researchers in innovation studies. It will also appeal to policy makers in the field of innovation policy as well as industrial economists and sociologists interested in traditional industries in advanced economies.

Innovation in Low-tech Firms and Industries

Jess McAree

Bodge it Yourself : why Pay Someone to Wreck Your Home?

Nikos Kokkinos

Nineteen studies illuminating Herod's role in the Augustan client network and his remarkable achievements, as expressed in his extensive building programme. Josephus' record is examined here in the light of the available documentary and archaeological evidence.

Papers Presented at the IJS Conference, 21st-23rd June 2005

Herod and Augustus

Having to make small talk with strangers, bumping into your ex and his new partner in the street, having to share a long rail journey with the boss, being faced with paying more than your fair share of an expensive restaurant bill, having to travel hundreds of miles to a boring family gathering... Sometimes there are things you would rather not do and places you would rather not be. But don't worry, help is at hand. Whether you are looking for an excuse or an escape route, Get Me Out of Here provides the answers to all manner of social nightmares without the usual embarrassment or awkwardness. Take this book to parties, first dates and on all forms of public transport. This is the ultimate social insurance policy, the one thing you can't afford to avoid. Includes material on avoiding small talk in confined spaces, avoiding public speaking, excuses for not meeting the in-laws, tips for losing the party bore, escaping the scene of a one night stand and escaping from the door-to-door sales person.

Exit Strategies for All Occasions

Get Me Out of Here

Have you ever been stuck with a bore at a party? Bumped into your ex-husband with his new girlfriend? Suffered through a long car trip with your boss? Gotten sucked into attending your friend's foreign wedding? You'll have better luck next time escaping at the last minute or avoiding the situation entirely once you've mastered David Jacobson's hilarious and ingenious techniques for finding the trap door in any social quagmire. Get Me Out of Here! provides expert advice and killer lines that really work, whether you're trying to avoid making small talk on a bus or desperate to leave your own party early. Every conceivable life scenario is anticipated here and addressed, from avoiding a landlord to evading your in-laws. With dozens of detailed illustrations, this entertaining reference gives step-by-step guidance on how to extricate yourself from almost any delicate situation.

Get Me Out of Here!

Maurizio Ambrosini

Manlio Cinalli

This edited collection goes beyond the limited definition of borders as simply dividing lines across states, to uncover another, yet related, type of division: one that separates policies and institutions from public debate and contestation. Bringing together expertise from established and emerging academics, it examines the fluid and varied borderscape across policy and the public domains. The chapters encompass a wide range of analyses that covers local, national and transnational frameworks, policies and private actors. In doing so, Migration, Borders and Citizenship reveals the tensions between border control and state economic interests; legal frameworks designed to contain criminality and solidarity movements; international conventions, national constitutions and local migration governance; and democratic and exclusive constructions of citizenship. This novel approach to the politics of borders will appeal to sociologists, political scientists and geographers working in the fields of migration, citizenship, urban geography and human rights; in addition to students and scholars of security studies and international relations.

Between Policy and Public Spheres

Migration, Borders and Citizenship

John C. Torpey

Todays warfare has moved away from being an event between massed national populations and toward small numbers of combatants using high-tech weaponry. The editors of and contributors to the timely collection Transformations of Warfare in the Contemporary World show that this shift reflects changes in the technological, strategic, ideological, and ethical realms. In his concluding remarks, David Jacobson explores the extent to which the contemporary transformation of warfare is a product of a shift in the character of the combatants themselves. -- Amazon.com.

David Jacobson

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