Innovation, often tempered by the language of inclusion, has become an indispensable element of contemporary development policy and practice in the so-called Global South. Driven by multinational companies, public–private partnerships and social enterprises, “innovation for development” aims to co-produce social goods (things of value) such as poverty alleviation with associated profit through innovative market-led solutions, opening up untapped and unserved markets in the developing world and exploiting the potential “fortune at the bottom of the pyramid”. But innovation for development is a contested notion with the capacity to shelter multiple political agendas. By reviewing existing academic theory and discussing four in-depth case studies from Bangladesh and India, this book interrogates how innovation for development is being framed, its politics and the impacts it is having on rural communities on the ground. The analysis suggests both an emerging hegemony constructed around a neoliberal, market-led agenda and the existence of countervailing voices that question this framing, sometimes radically so.

This timely book takes an insightful look at rethinking innovation and how lessons can be learnt from what is a major turning point in our contemporary societies: the urgent need to reduce the use or consumption of certain substances and technologies due to the dangers they pose to our environments and current way of life. Using theoretical reflection and empirical work in a broad range of sectors including agriculture, food, health, religion, energy, packaging, markets and digital technology, eminent scholars utilise new perspectives to enrich our understanding of innovation processes and how these can be transformed.

Environmental policy has long been determined by a dichotomy between technology and behavior. This book explores the relationships between technology and behavior from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is the first volume that aims to create a conceptual basis for analyzing interactions between technology and behavior, and to provide insights that are relevant to technology design and environmental policy.

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of sustainable energy systems, as presented by researchers and engineers at the International Conference Sustainable Energy Systems: Innovative Perspectives (SES), held in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, on October 29-30, 2020. It covers highly diverse topics, including applications of renewable energy sources, recycling of solid municipal and industrial waste, circular economy based on agricultural waste, energy-efficient and sustainable buildings, innovation management and technologies of sustainable cities, sustainable construction, creative construction technology and materials, construction simulation and virtual construction, BIM and rapid prototyping for construction, consumption practices in the digital era, sustainable operations management, and supply chain management in the digital era. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

This guide walks the reader through the many options open to students interested in construction, installation, and maintenance. With detailed information on needed preparation and certification, this book gives readers a solid overview of these high-growth industries.

Power and social inequality shape patterns of land use and resource management. This book explores this relationship from different perspectives, illuminating the complexity of interactions between human societies and nature. Most of the contributors use the perspective of "political ecology" as a point of departure, recognizing that human relations to the environment and human social relations are not separate phenomena but inextricably intertwined. What makes this volume unique is that it sets this approach in a trans-disciplinary, global, and historical framework.