We live in a time where organizational change has become the norm. Organizations are constantly undergoing major restructurings be it outsourcing, downsizing or major reorganizational changes, e.g., team or LEAN implementation. Stability has become the exception. Managing good and healthy change seems to be a prerequisite to secure the organization’s survival. Research has indicated that the way the change is implemented greatly influences the results of changes and that organizational change may have detrimental effects on employees’ working environment, health and well-being. The unique contribution of this Ebook is the healthy change perspective. This book is about how change can benefit the health of the organization and the individual employee, and it is hoped that it will be of interest to many readers.

Queer and Subjugated Knowledges: Generating Subversive Imaginaries makes an invaluable contribution to gender and sexuality studies, engaging with queer theory to reconceptualize everyday interactions. The scholars in this book respond to J. Halberstam’s call to engage in alternative imaginings to reconceptualize forms of being, the production of knowledge, and envisage a world with different sites for justice and injustice. The recent work of cultural theorist, Judith Halberstam, makes new investments in the notion of the counter-hegemonic, the subversive and the alternative. For Halberstam, the alternative resides in a creative engagement with subjugated histories, an ecstatic investment in the subcultural and a defiant refusal of a dominant model of theory. Working across Rhetoric and Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Performance Studies, Television and Media Studies, Animation, Sociology, History, Social Policy, Childhood Studies, Education, and Cultural Geography, this unique interdisciplinary text aimed at academics, undergraduate and postgraduate students provides challenging new frameworks for generating knowledge.

In our increasingly global world, individuals are highly mobile and interconnected. Politics, policies and technologies foster interconnection amongst and within countries as individuals relocate from one place to another. One key issue facing developed and developing countries is urban overcrowding. In Australia, urban density is one factor prompting institutions and individuals to embrace ‘rural revival’ as a possible solution to urban congestion and rural decline. In the past decade, rural Australia has received heightened publicity and interest as a lifestyle destination encouraged by national decentralization policies to alleviate urban overcrowding, particularly the metropolises Melbourne and Sydney, regional councils’ marketing initiatives and international refugee relocation. Rural communities struggle in contrast with urban counterparts for several, often complex, reasons. The ‘realities’ of rural life are frequently marginalized while marketing campaigns evoke stereotypical imagery of idyllic lifestyles and bucolic pastures to sell dreams of country bliss to fatigued urbanites. This edited e-book is a collection of articles that explores ‘rural realities’ of country life in Australia for global audiences interested in rurality, health and well-being. By transcending disciplinary-specific boundaries, this multi-disciplinary book not only presents contemporary challenges, but also equips readers with evidence-based knowledge to improve resilience in communities and individuals facing key issues such as aging, depression, disability, environmental degradation, limited service delivery and social isolation. Utilizing a variety of social science research methods, each chapter will enhance readers’ insights about rural amenities, geography, identity, culture, health and governance which impact wellbeing and lifestyle satisfaction. Collectively, this book exposes readers to ideas from a dynamic range of experts in the humanities, social and natural sciences to encourage a holistic approach to developing solutions for a complex social world. The content of this volume will interest a wide audience of graduates and undergraduates, researchers, professional practitioners and policymakers involved with non-profit and government organizations, and interested community members.

A refreshing and useful resource for understanding the multidimensional aspects linking social determinants to health equity and development. The book is written for researchers, students, public health practitioners, health decision makers, health economists, epidemiologists, sociologists, demographers and general public audience with interest in health equity and development. The nine chapters presented are clear and comprehensive, reinforced by several diagrams and real examples illustrating inequity in health. The book is Illustrated with 45 tables and figures, and contain 355 recent references to the literature.

The Paradox in Partnership: The Role of Conflict in Partnership Building elucidates on alliances that are - on one hand, designed to promote collaboration between individuals, groups and organizations - but on the other hand, the processes of their formation and maintenance entail continuous engagement with competitive orientation, power struggles and conflict. Theoretical frameworks with praxis are integrated as reflected in a variety of organizational, community and national contexts. In the theoretical domain, it expands knowledge on partnerships in general and their paradoxical nature in particular. On the practical level, the dual partnership phenomenon is explained along with considerable advantages it may offer to all partners when it is developed systematically and is accompanied by reflection and learning, especially while facing the reality of dwindling resources.

Sociologists have suggested that being on the move entails a complex choreography, comprised of passenger comportment, signage, announcements and posters. Employing insights from mobility theory, Transporting moments provides an account of railway culture from a passenger’s perspective. The book uses the context of commuting in Sydney, at a time when elements of its intra-urban rail network were being upgraded as its principal case study. This upgrade covers its rolling stock, infrastructure and linguistic landscape. It is argued that understanding the rationale behind these changes requires an understanding of the historical and policy context in which the railways of Sydney’s, New South Wales and Australia are embedded. This is also the case with the nation’s long distance trains, whose operators have fought hard to stave off competition from airliners and cars. Transporting moments, therefore, presents strong case for preserving public transport as a more equitable and sustainable form of mobility. Governments, Australian or otherwise, can use these insights for productive investment in their rail networks and public transportation service in general, and for reducing the nation’s addiction to the automobile. With its invaluable insights into travelling on trains, Transporting moments is a fascinating addition to the growing corpus of literature on day-to-day mobility.

The general themes of this analysis of the commercial space tourism industry include three main topics; 1) Benefits of commercial space tourism to numerous stakeholders, 2) The viability of commercial space tourism 3) existing public relations solutions for virtually all impediments to commercial space tourism. Initially, development of a viable commercial space tourism industry would provide substantial economic benefits. A second factor is that the primary impediments to commercial space tourism industrial development are amenable to public relations solutions. For space industrial development to be successful, it will take a delicate balance of satisfying state, local and federal policy makers. Many federal regulatory agencies are involved that have jurisdiction over commercial space. Economic policy is also a factor as the public and politicians deal with resource allocation issues. The public will expect commercial space and tourism to create economic growth and jobs as well. A book addressing these issues and offering solutions to these topics in space tourism and policy will be unique to the industry. This e-book is a useful guide for readers who are personally and/or professionally interested in commercial space tourism and related commercial space ventures, and those interested in astronautics, space development and similar public policy issues in general. Readers also interested in aeronautics, as well as regulatory agencies and legislatures will also benefit from this e-book.

Animal disease models are a vital tool to study diseases and associated conditions. Studies on animal models can, in some cases, be used as a basis for modeling and understanding human diseases. Biomedical scientists face a challenge to choose the correct animal model to study disease pathology, and neurological diseases are no exception to this rule. <p> Animal Models for Neurological Disorders covers different animal models which have been used for studying neurological disorders. 13 topical chapters have been contributed by a group of experts on the subject with an aim to cover emerging experimental models of a range of neurological diseases encountered in the clinic including Alzheimer’s disease, psychosis, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease, vascular dementia, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis and brain tumors, among others. The chapters also inform readers about relevant clinical correlations in each disease model where appropriate. <p> Animal Models for Neurological Disorders is intended for all scholarly researchers and students of biomedical sciences, pharmacology, medicine (oncology, neurology, psychiatry), pharmacy, biochemistry, and biotechnology. The organized contents of the book also serve as a quick reference point for scientists working in applied areas of neuroscience including the study of neurodegenerative diseases and cognitive dysfunction in living organisms.

This text describes important considerations for conceptualizing, designing and carrying out qualitative research in community settings. The book covers various research aspects with respect to teaching, learning, practicing and assessing. Readers will gain insights into qualitative methodology as a vital stand-alone approach and find it to be an illuminating supplement to quantitative methodology and a core component of mixed methods studies. Some key questions answered by the book are: What&rsquo;s in it for us? What are collaborations and partnerships? How can knowledge and skills to achieve meaningful outcomes be acquired and applied? How can scientific rigor be achieved? What are the challenges and how can they be resolved? What is ethical? Whose voices and narratives should be portrayed? What is culturally competent qualitative research? Who and what determine assessments? Can qualitative research help sustain community? What happens when the project ends? How can research shape public policy? The e-book should serve as a useful guide for social science and community research students and teachers alike.