In this chapter, we first provide an overview of health and mental health outcomes across the different types of street segments studied to assess whether residents of crime hot spots have more adverse health issues compared with residents living on street segments with little or no crime. We find that there are strong relationships between mental and physical health and living in crime hot spots as opposed to non-hot spots. We then examine whether negative health outcomes are a consequence of living in a crime hot spot. We find that hot spots of crime are not simply places with high crime rates; they are also places with strong physical and mental health deficits. After accounting for selection, several physical and mental health problems are found to result from living in a crime hot spot.

This chapter analyses the Marxian problem of transforming values into prices of production in light of Sraffa’s price system. It begins by introducing an ‘ideal’ price system where workers receive the entire net product. This system, based on ‘values’ or embodied labor, is contrasted with the ‘prices-of-production system’ where profits are distributed in proportion to total capital. The chapter then delves into the differences between these systems, highlighting Marx’s three propositions about the relationship between the rate of surplus value and the rate of profit.

It examines the special case of Sraffa’s Standard system where income distribution is independent of the price system and explores the concept of a linear operator that transforms values into prices. The chapter also discusses Marx’s simplification of uniform ‘organic composition of capital,’ where values and prices coincide. Finally, it demonstrates that the rate of surplus value is inherent in the prices-of-production system when expressed in terms of the per-capita net product.

Chapter 4 shows how the emergence of novel policy beliefs led to the adoption of globalized state-led development. It documents the policy beliefs of policy-makers from the Brazilian Workers’ Party regarding the benefits of state support for nationally controlled MNCs for the country’s long-term development. It traces the emergence of these novel policy ideas to the epistemic and policy learning of policy-makers and shows how these ideas guided industrial policy and BNDES reform. To further validate the argument, the chapter addresses competing explanations for policy adoption centered on political coalitions, macroeconomic conditions, and business pressures.

Cities concentrate opportunity and inequality. This chapter shows how rapid urbanization has generated both prosperity and exclusion. It analyses the governance challenges of megacities, including infrastructure gaps, housing crises, and fragmented authority. It advocates for institutional reforms to promote inclusive urban development, where growth does not mean gated prosperity for the few but opportunity for the many.

In Singaporean Chinese funerals, small patches of fabric, pinned to the bereaved’s sleeves, have replaced elaborate mourning gowns. Anthropologists, examining the transformation of ritual in similar contexts – supposedly secularizing, rationalizing, post-industrial, late-capitalist worlds – have read such changes as evidence of the simplification of ritual and of ritual’s declining centrality in the marking of death. In this chapter, however, I argue that the shift from gowns to patches is more complex, inextricably linked to the policies of the Singaporean state regarding identity. Gowns were linked to the complexities of Chinese folk religion, a blend of Buddhism, Taoism, and ancestor worship that linked Singaporeans to their histories in Mainland China. The patch, however, articulates a unified Singaporean Chinese identity, described as “Buddhist bland.” Broadly, I address why, when rituals change, some elements are abandoned, seemingly without regret, while others are retained, becoming orthopraxy. While we might expect that the ritual elements that are retained are those that carry the most meaning, in this example, I suggest, the opposite is the case.

This chapter explores the attitudes and perceptions of fifty-five practitioners engaged in infrastructure-related dispute prevention and resolution in the Asia Pacific region. The aim of the survey and follow-up interview conversations is to provide insights into the dynamics, challenges and lessons learned in engaging with communities to prevent and resolve disputes in the context of infrastructure projects. The principal finding of this chapter, based on survey data and follow-up questions, is that from the perspective of regional practitioners, prior community consultation is considered the most effective approach to preventing infrastructure disputes. This finding is consistent with the results of the data analysis in the prior chapter correlating heightened consultation standards with a reduction in the proportion of project disputes. A number of challenges continue to exist in mitigation efforts with the most challenging being the ‘lack of agreement on shared economic benefits’ and ‘limited communication’. Overall, practitioners advised that most disputes arise because ‘there was no consultation or inadequate consultation with a marginalised part of the community’. The chapter also includes practitioner suggestions on areas for improvement. The findings of this chapter demonstrate the significance of effective prior community consultation and grievance mechanisms for preventing disputes.

Consumed by thoughts of a blue flower, Heinrich leaves his cold homeland and travels south until he meets Mathilde, who opens his eyes to the world’s mysteries. Then a tragic event reveals the secret power of poetry …

Heinrich von Ofterdingen, left unfinished at the time of the author’s death, is a masterpiece of philosophical fiction and a classic of German literature. This highly detailed and original interpretation is the most comprehensive and systematic study of the novel ever written. Developing fresh insights into the philosophical ideas of the novel while also attending to its symbolic, literary, and creative qualities, Owen Ware explores how Novalis probes the core problem of modern life – fragmentation, and our sense of alienation from the world. Ultimately, he shows us, this novel is a timeless expression of the Romantics’ idea that only the imagination, guided by love, can bring us back to our spiritual home.