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Buyers Beware  offers a new perspective for critical inquiries about the practices of consumption in (and of) Caribbean popular culture. The book revisits commonly accepted representations of the Caribbean from “less respectable” segments of popular culture such as dancehall culture and 'sistah lit' that proudly jettison any aspirations toward middle-class respectability. Treating these pop cultural texts and phenomena with the same critical attention as dominant mass cultural representations of the region allows Patricia Joan Saunders to read them against the grain and consider whether and how their “pulp” preoccupation with contemporary fashion, music, sex, fast food, and television, is instructive for how race, class, gender, sexuality and national politics are constructed, performed, interpreted, disseminated and consumed from within the Caribbean.  

InStrategic Coupling, Henry Wai-chung Yeung examines economic development and state-firm relations in East Asia, focusing in particular on South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. As a result of the massive changes of the last twenty-five years, new explanations must be found for the economic success and industrial transformation in the region. State-assisted startups and incubator firms in East Asia have become major players in the manufacture of products with a global reach: Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision has assembled more than 500 million iPhones, for instance, and South Korea's Samsung provides the iPhone's semiconductor chips and retina displays. Drawing on extensive interviews with top executives and senior government officials, Yeung argues that since the late 1980s, many East Asian firms have outgrown their home states, and are no longer dependent on state support; as a result the developmental state has lost much of its capacity to steer and direct industrialization. We cannot read the performance of national firms as a direct outcome of state action. Yeung calls for a thorough renovation of the still-dominant view that states are the primary engine of industrial transformation. He stresses action by national firms and traces various global production networks to incorporate both firm-specific activities and the international political economy. He identifies two sets of dynamics in these national-global articulations known as strategic coupling: coevolution in the confluence of state, firm, and global production networks, and the various strategies pursued by East Asian firms to attain competitive positions in the global marketplace.

1 in 10 undergraduates in the US will study abroad. Extoled by students as personally transformative and celebrated in academia for fostering cross-cultural understanding, study abroad is also promoted by the US government as a form of cultural diplomacy and a bridge to future participation in the global marketplace. In Documenting the American Student Abroad, Kelly Hankin explores the documentary media cultures that shape these beliefs, drawing our attention to the broad range of stakeholders and documentary modes involved in defining the core values and practices of study abroad. From study abroad video contests and a F.B.I. produced docudrama about student espionage to reality television inspired educational documentaries and docudramas about Amanda Knox, Hankin shows how the institutional values of \"global citizenship,\" \"intercultural communication,\" and \"cultural immersion\" emerge in contradictory ways through their representation. By bringing study abroad and media studies into conversation with one another, Documenting the American Student Abroad: The Media Cultures of International Education offers a much needed humanist contribution to the field of international education, as well as a unique approach to the growing scholarship on the intersection of media and institutions. As study abroad practitioners and students increase their engagement with moving images and digital environments, the insights of media scholars are essential for helping the field understand how the mediation of study abroad rhetoric shapes rather than reflects the field's central institutional ideals

This book builds knowledge and skills on the technical aspects of the project life cycle, the tools to plan project activities and budget, and tools to accurately determine the status of business projects. Business projects are different from the construction or engineering projects that entail a sequential process. The business projects face enormous uncertainty and demand localized treatment in carrying the project tasks. Equally important and challenging is the goal of satisfying a wide variety of stakeholder demands. Project Managers must therefore understand the detailed technical tools, as well as leadership, accountability, organizational structures, and alliances with external organizations. Hence, this book also discusses the systems thinking approach in planning and implementation of business projects.

This book examines and emphasizes the project design and operations process across the business cultures, the requirements to carry business projects successfully and implement the project plans carefully. One of the core arguments this book presents is that the right decisions support planning and implementation of business projects, accelerates its process, and lower the risk with the measurable results in the rapidly growing international marketplace. In the growing market competition in the 21st century, corporate success depends on breaking through the innovation- oriented business projects and analyzing the right information for building marketplace strategies. However, it is evident from the failures of several corporate initiatives that most companies are unable to manage business projects efficiently. This book presents new insights on developing competitive business project designs and breakthroughs in managing them, considering the time, territory, target, and tasks management, assuring business gains and market competitiveness.

From sushi and karaoke to martial arts and technoware, the currency of made-in-Japan cultural goods has skyrocketed in the global marketplace during the past decade. The globalization of Japanese \"cool\" is led by youth products: video games, manga (comic books), anime (animation), and cute characters that have fostered kid crazes from Hong Kong to Canada. Examining the crossover traffic between Japan and the United States, Millennial Monstersexplores the global popularity of Japanese youth goods today while it questions the make-up of the fantasies and the capitalistic conditions of the play involved. Arguing that part of the appeal of such dream worlds is the polymorphous perversity with which they scramble identity and character, the author traces the postindustrial milieux from which such fantasies have arisen in postwar Japan and been popularly received in the United States.

The challenges that companies are forced to face are becoming more and more complex, making the global business environment to be extremely dynamic. Both the United States and European Union, are two of the most attractive markets worldwide, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, but simultaneously offering the best success chances for those companies who understand that an analysis as detailed as possible on the business environment is essential.

New horizons are opening for Africa, with a growing number of Chinese andIndian businesses fostering its integration into advanced markets. However,significant imbalances will have to be addressed on both sides of the equation to support long-term growth.

This book addresses the project management tools and techniques in reference to innovation management analyzing global-local business scenarios, project environment, and administrative perspectives. It also details the financial, risk management, new project designs, complexities in managing innovation, and developing customer-centric innovation projects. Discussions in the book also deliberate on how innovation business project can be managed systematically to enhance organizational performance.

This book builds knowledge and skills on the technical aspects of the project life cycle, the tools to plan project activities and budget, and tools to accurately determine the status of business projects. Business projects are different from the construction or engineering projects that entail a sequential process. The business projects face enormous uncertainty and demand localized treatment in carrying the project tasks. Equally important and challenging is the goal of satisfying a wide variety of stakeholder demands. Project Managers must therefore understand the detailed technical tools, as well as leadership, accountability, organizational structures, and alliances with external organizations. Hence, this book also discusses the systems thinking approach in planning and implementation of business projects.