The book focuses on regional and economic change in Eastern and Central Europe, using Slovakia as a case study. It explains the relationship between industrial change and regional development and discusses fragmentation within the context of the legacy of the state socialist industralization model.

This title was first published in 2003. Throughout Western Europe and the former Soviet bloc, the structural shift from traditional heavy industry towards lighter manufacturing and services has often had a strong regional dimension. This volume brings together researchers and practitioners from Scotland and Poland to share such restructuring experiences. The Poles, now closer than ever to EU membership, are eager to draw on Western experience while Western experts and institutions have an opportunity to contribute to shaping regional policy in Central Europe. The book is divided into four sections: the first examines economic transformation and restructuring; the second focuses on social partnerships and their role in regional development; the third looks at enterprise-supporting initiatives; the final section questions the role of FDI. Its Scottish-Polish focus provides a fresh perspective on policy for regional and local development, summarising recent developments in both countries and stressing the importance of building appropriate institutional capacity to promote strong local economies.

The 2008 global economic crisis resulted in many new changes in global economic governance, multilateral trading system, the Group20 major economies, regional economic cooperation and other international governance platforms. Countries around the world have begun a complex battle to make sure rules are changed in their favor. Furthermore, rule reconstruction has a definite and profound impact on the international economic situation and national trade interests. This book by Former Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming, aims to highlight the focal issues of the competition and negotiations with a panoramic depiction of the complicated state of international economic and trade rule reconstruction.The chapters in the book discuss rules of global governance, reflect on the crisis rarely seen in the past century, and raise the proposition of rule reconstruction. They also focus on multilateral trading system, regional economic cooperation and related international financial rules. Detailed deliberations on various kinds of trade rules including rules of services trade, government procurement, intellectual property, investment, international development cooperation, etc are also dealt with. Lastly, the book provides an outlook on the path, direction and key issues of international economic rule reconstruction, and offers recommendations on China's engagement.

The creation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1992 and decentralization in 1999 mark the state restructuring in Indonesia. This book analyses the impact of state restructuring on regional economic development in Indonesia between 1993 and 2010. Regional economic analysis shows persistent and severe regional disparities throughout the period. Particularly, econometrics study found that decentralization has accelerated regional disparities whilst the AFTA effect is insignificant on regional economic growth. Furthermore, historical institutionalism analysis on two cities - the manufacturing industry in Batam and the creative economy in Bandung - shows that past and embedded local institutions provide the capacity to adapt and create new development paths. The book suggests the importance of local-specific policies that embrace local knowledge and institutions to develop regional specialization and competitive advantage. This book fills the gap in Indonesian literature that lacks studies on the integrated impact of decentralization and trade liberalization, both economically and politically.

First Published in 1992 Reconstruction and Regional Diplomacy in the Persian Gulf goes beyond a description of the recent events by analysing the social, political, and economic patterns of interaction between the Gulf states. The argument is strengthened by a consideration of the role of the superpowers in the region’s political discourse, and of religion as a force for a change. Not only do the authors provide an easily accessible basis for explaining the current problems in the region, but they also offer their own, sometimes provocative policy prescriptions. This book is an important read for scholars and researchers of Middle East politics and Middle East history.

This book presents an evaluation of the impacts of megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis on regional economies and subsequent reconstruction, as well as regional revitalization by the spatial economic model and dynamic macro and regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. The cases examined are the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Indian Ocean Tsunami. The study constructs three models of these megathrust earthquakes and the associated tsunami. In the first model, the regional CGE model is proposed with a database comprising the two-regional social accounting matrix for 2005 between the region comprising four disaster-affected prefectures of Japan and the non-disaster region. For the recursive dynamic regional CGE model, the model that expanded and improved the dynamic two-regional CGE model to reflect the incomplete employment conditions and the aging society is used to analyze the impacts of an earthquake and the construction of industrial clusters. In the second model, the interregional input–output model is proposed in order to analyze the impacts of the earthquake and rapid population decline and construction of a biogas electricity power plant. In the third model, a new economic geography (NEG) model is proposed, consisting of the 47 prefectures of Japan in order to investigate the impacts of the Great East Japan and Nankai megathrust earthquakes and the associated tsunami and to consider how they change the regional economies of Japan. Using these three models, the impacts of megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis on regional economies and reconstruction and on regional revitalization are evaluated.

The Hanshin Earthquake was the largest disaster to affect postwar Japan and one of the most destructive postwar natural disasters to strike a developed country. Although the media focused on the disaster's immediate effects, the long-term reconstruction efforts have gone largely unexplored. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, David Edgington records the first ten years of reconstruction and recovery and asks whether planners successfully exploited opportunities to make a more sustainable and disaster-proof city. This book is an intricate investigation of one of the largest redevelopment projects in recent memory.

Rebuilding the vitality of mountain environments (Ecosystem health / Bio- diversity / Social, cultural and economic aspects); Environmental impacts of development in headwater regions (Impacts of commercial forestry, tourism, road construction, mining, etc.); Hydrology of headwater regions (Impacts of acid rain, land use change, climatic change, biological aspects of hydrological cycle); Environmental monitoring in headwater environments (Including GIS / remote sensing / problems of field research in isolated regions); Erosion control in steeplands (Soil conservation, torrent control, etc.); Management of mountain forrests and community actions (Land use, forest ecology, NGO activities, etc.); Sustainable development of mountain environment (CIDA-SICI experience).