La Pollera Ediciones
La Pollera's catalog includes narrative, essay, and chronicle of contemporary and classic authors.
View Rights PortalLa Pollera's catalog includes narrative, essay, and chronicle of contemporary and classic authors.
View Rights PortalPolperro Heritage Press is an independent British publisher, established in 1995. Recent titles from Polperro Press have included biographies, guides and a growing list of Cornish local history titles.
View Rights PortalOver the past ten years the Irish polity has experienced profound change. The pessimism that had engulfed Irish society during the 1980s has given way to a new found confidence, one that befits its status as an emerging, confident and cosmopolitan European state. This book provides a theoretical examination of this startling turnaround in the fortunes of the Irish polity and details the developments that have taken place in key areas of public policy over the last decade: civil service reform, the welfare state, environmental policy abd rural development. ;
This book examines the motivations for the European Union's (EU) policy towards the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), the EU's most important relationship with another regional economic integration organisation. It argues that the dominant explanations in the literature - balancing the US, global aspirations, being an external federator, long-standing economic and cultural ties, economic interdependence, and the Europeanization of Spanish and Portuguese national foreign policies - fail to adequately explain the EU's policy. In particular, these accounts tend to infer the EU's motives from its activity. Drawing extensive primary documents, this book argues that the major developments in the relationship - the 1992 Inter-institutional Agreement and the 1995 Europe Mercosur Inter-regional Framework Cooperation Agreement - were initiated by Mercosur and supported mainly by Spain. This means that rather than pursuing a strategy, as implied by most of the existing literature, the EU was largely responsive.
It is an accepted convention that non-health sector policies and strategies impact on population health. An instrument and approach, Health Impact Assessment (HIA), seeks to assess the health impacts of projects, programmes and policies in a systematic way. The ultimate goal of HIA is to inform public policy processes of these impacts. This book provides for the first time an analysis of how and why HIAs informed local policy development in both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland. An original theoretical framework was used as the analytical lens for this exploration, drawing from the fields of political and social sciences, and public health. The HIA projects were conducted on traffic and transport, Traveller accommodation, urban redevelopment and air quality. This conceptually-grounded guide draws from the disciplines of the political and social sciences and public health, and will appeal to academics, students and practitioners in these fields as well as policy-makers and planners at local and national government levels. ;
This edited collection is the first to apply the theoretical lens of post-Foucauldian governmentality to an analysis of health problems, practices, and policy in Ireland. Drawing on empirical examples related to childhood, obesity, mental health, smoking, ageing and others, the collection explores how specific health issues have been constructed as problematic and in need of intervention in the Irish State, and considers the strategies, discourses and technologies involved in the art of governing health in advanced liberal democracies. Bringing together academics from social policy, sociology, political science and public health, the text seeks to develop a dialogue about both the nature of health and health policy in the Ireland, but also how governmentality, as a theoretical approach, can contribute to the development of critical health policy analysis.
'Agricultural policy in Europe', available for the first time in paperback, provides a unique comparative analysis of the UK, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Greece and Ireland, using up-to-date material on CAP reform, world trade liberalisation, animal disease, rural development and the environment. In its core argument that Europe has a Common Agricultural Policy in name only, the study offers a distinctive interpretation of contemporary policies for agriculture and rural development. Policy is considerably more diverse than usually recognised, and also varies across different policy stages such as agenda setting, formulation and implementation. This diversity is the result of a multilevel policy process in which global, regional and local actors play a key role alongside the institutions of the EU. Yet nation states are central. Despite the existence of the CAP, substantial policy variations reflect different national economies, cultures, priorities and interests, usually mediated through different types of policy networks. Far from greater policy integration, the pressures for diversity have increased in recent years, notably through world trade liberalisation, environmental concern and EU enlargement. With continuing controversy about the future direction and powers of the EU, this groundbreaking book sheds new light on the extent to which agricultural policy in Europe is common. It goes beyond formal legal structures and the rhetoric of popular debate to look at what actually happens in a complex policy process that is both multilevel and multi stage. The result is a very different picture in which agricultural policy is considerably more diverse and fragmented than usually assumed. ;
This book offers a new critical framework for understanding the processes of politicising and gendering care for older people and their manifestations in several European contexts. It interrogates how care for older adults varies across time and place while searching for an in-depth comprehension of how it becomes an arena of political struggle and the object of public policy in different countries and at various societal and political levels. It brings together multidisciplinary contributions that examine the issue of care for older people as a political concern from many angles, such as problematising care needs, long-term care policies, home care services, institutional services and family care. The contributions reveal the diversity of situations in which the processes of politicising and gendering care for older adults overlap, contradict or reinforce each other while leading to increased gender (in)equalities on different levels.
This study is the first large-scale comparison of policy and divergence in the UK since devolution. Based on extensive original research, it argues that we see substantial divergence in policies and social citizenship among the four parts of the UK as its autonomous political systems try to solve the unpredictable and difficult puzzles of health policy-making. ;
Civic identity and public space, focussing on Belfast, and bringing together the work of a historian and two social scientists, offers a new perspective on the sometimes lethal conflicts over parades, flags and other issues that continue to disrupt political life in Northern Ireland. It examines the emergence during the nineteenth century of the concept of public space and the development of new strategies for its regulation, the establishment, the new conditions created by the emergence in 1920 of a Northern Ireland state, of a near monopoly of public space enjoyed by Protestants and unionists, and the break down of that monopoly in more recent decades. Today policy makers and politicians struggle to devise a strategy for the management of public space in a divided city, while endeavouring to promote a new sense of civic identity that will transcend long-standing sectarian and political divisions.
This book represents the first ever comprehensive study of the EU's foreign and security policy in Bosnia. Drawing on a wealth of fresh empirical material, it demonstrates that institutions are a key variable in explaining levels of common foreign security policy (CFSP) coherence and effectiveness over time. In doing so, it also sheds new light on the role that intergovernmental, bureaucratic and local political contestation have played in the formulation and implementation of a European foreign policy. The study concludes that the EU's involvement in Bosnia has not only had a significant impact on this Balkan country in its path from stabilisation to integration, but has also transformed the EU, its foreign and security policy and shaped the development of the EU's international identity along the way. The book will be of great interest to researchers and students of EU politics, International Relations and Bosnian politics. ;
On the afternoon of September 11 2001 the Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach), Bertie Ahern ordered the 'heads of the security services of key government departments' to undertake a complete re-evaluation of measures to protect the state from attack. Hence, underway within hours of the 9/11 outrage in the United States was potentially the most far-reaching review of Irish national security in decades. This book, the first major academic investigation of Irish national security policy as it has operated since 9/11, provides a theoretically informed analysis of that re-evaluation and the decisions which have been taken as a consequence of it up until September 2008. In so doing it draws on unprecedented access to Ireland's police, security and intelligence agencies; over twenty senior personnel agreed to be interviewed. Theoretically the author demonstrates the utility to the analysis of national security policy of three conceptual models of historical institutionalism, governmental politics and threat evaluation. The text is of interest to scholars of Security Studies, International Relations and Politics, as well as state and NGO personnel, journalists and general readers. ;
This book examines how Ireland's relationship with the EU was affected by a succession of crises in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The financial crisis, the Brexit crisis and the migration crisis were not of equal significance on the island of Ireland. The financial crisis was a huge issue for the Republic but not Northern Ireland, Brexit had a major impact in both polities, the migration and populism issues were less controversial, while foreign policy challenges had a minimal impact. The book provides a summary of the main features of each of the crises to be considered, from both the EU and the Irish perspective. Ireland and the European Union is the first volume of its kind to provide a comprehensive analysis on British-Irish relations in the context of Brexit. It assesses the Withdrawal Agreement and Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, the devolution settlement and the 1998 Agreement, as well as the European dimension to Northern Ireland's peace process. The contributors explore a number of policy areas that are central to the understanding of each of the crises and the impact of each for Ireland. Chapters examine issues such as security, migration and taxation as well as protest politics, political parties, the media, public opinion and the economic impact of each of these crises on Ireland's relationship with the EU.
Environmental policy has become an increasingly important area of European Union (EU) policy-making and the source of political conflict between Britain and Germany. This book explains why national conflicts have arisen and how they are resolved at EU level by focusing on the Europeanisation of air and water pollution control in particular. Wurzel argues that Anglo-German divergences are best explained in terms of ecological vulnerability, economic cost and capacity, political salience and environmental regulatory styles. Focusing on two very important and media-exploitable issues - car emissions and bathing water regulation - this book challenges the conventional wisdom that Britain has shown a clear preference for environmental quality objectives while Germany championed uniform emission limits. Acceptance of the concept of ecological modernisation plays a vital role in the adoption of more progressive environmental standards. ;
This book, now available in paperback, explores the development of youth policy and youth work in Ireland from the mid-nineeenth century to the present day. Based on original research, funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS), it looks at the social construction of youth, the emergence of the early youth movements and the nature and scope of contemporary youth work. Key issues include: the shift from mainstream to targeted provision, the professionalisation of the sector and the increased partnership between the state and voluntary sector. A second major theme is the treatment of young people in industrial and reformatory schools, with particular reference to the findings of the Ryan Report on child abuse (2009). This is the only book which combines an exploration of the history and current scope of youth work and youth policy, and which is based on comprehensive original research. It will be essential reading for lecturers and students in youth work, social sciences, social history and related fields.
The first comprehensive account of the public and cultural diplomacy campaigns carried out by the US in Yugoslavia during the height of the Cold War, this book examines the political role of culture in US-Yugoslav bilateral relations and the fluid links between information and propaganda. Tito allowed the US Information Agency and the State Department's cultural programmes to enter Yugoslavia, liberated from Soviet control. The exchange of intellectual and political personnel helped foster the US-Yugoslav relationship, yet it posed severe ideological challenges for both sides. By providing new insights into porous borders between freedom and coercion in Tito's regime, this book shows how public diplomacy acted as an external input for Yugoslav liberalisation and dissident movements. Using extensive archival research and interviews, Konta analyses the links between information and propaganda, and the unintended effects of propaganda beyond the control of producers and receivers.
The 1990s were the decade of transition from white rule to black rule in South Africa. In the political sphere the transition was dramatic. In the economic sphere less so, yet the effects were and are likely to be far more far reaching. It is the economic impacts which are likely to determine the future of the country. With the exception of the diamond-rich Botswana, all the countries of Africa which underwent the transition from white to black rule experienced economic decline. Is this to be the fate of South Africa? How was and is South Africa's historical role as the world's leading gold producer affected by the transition? Why did some economic policies succeed and others fail? This book, by leading authorities in the field, attempts to answer these and other related questions. ;