The No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous People
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
This guide looks beyond the exotic images tracing the story of different indigenous people from their first contact with explorers and colonizers to the present day. Much of this story is told by the indigenous people themselves and they present the issues behind the challenge to give them their own space in their own lands.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change
The Science, the Solutions, the Way Forward
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Just as the need for action on climate change becomes more urgent and overwhelming, the campaign to deny that humans are causing it has gained more traction. This completely new book meets the sceptics head on, offering a guide to the science, an insight into the politics of climate justice and a clear sense of the way forward.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Science
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Science is the great intellectual adventure, but can also be an instrument of profit, power, and privilege. Wrongly used, it might yet make the twenty-first century our last. To make sense of this, we need to let go of old ideas and assumptions. This No-Nonsense Guide to Science introduces a new way of thinking about science, moving away from ideas of perfect certainty and objectivity. We must accept uncertainty and ignorance in the field, as well as the need for citizens' participation in the policies involving science.
The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food
New Edition
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Wayne Roberts puts under the microscope a global food system that is under strain from climate change and from economic disaster. He shows how a world food system based on supermarkets and agribusiness corporations is unsustainable and looks at new models of producing healthy food from all over the world.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Media
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Peter Steven explores the full spectrum of communications around the world, from the mega-corporations to the citizen reporters, from the newsrooms of Washington to the film industry of Nigeria. Steven examines the continuously shifting communications landscape, with a focus on how the media is responding to declining advertising revenues, social media sites, portable devices, and Asia's growing influence and power.
With an emphasis on diverse small-scale media production that exist only through their contact with specific audiences, Steven invites us to question how the media reflects society, and he asks: are we passive recipients? Or do we play a part in constructing our world?
The No-Nonsense Guide to Green Politics
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Climate chaos and pollution, deforestation and consumerism: the crisis facing human civilization is clear enough. But the response of politicians to it has been cowardly and inadequate, while environmental activists have tended to favor single-issue campaigns rather than electoral politics. The No-Nonsense Guide to Green Politics measures the rising tide of eco-activism and awareness and explains why it heralds a new political era worldwide. Derek Wall is a former principal speaker of the British Green Party. He is the author of numerous books, including Babylon and Beyond: The Economics of Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Globalist and Radical Green Movements.
The No-Nonsense Guide to World Health
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
A clear yet wide-ranging introduction to the state of health worldwide, exploring the ways in which health provision is often determined by ethnicity, class, and gender. Starting with a brief history of medical progress, this guide delves into current politics of health in the contexts of big business and private health provision, media, gender, and the environment. Shereen Usdin is a medical doctor and a public health specialist. She is co-founder of the internationally acclaimed Soul City for Health and Development Communication in South Africa and works in the areas of development communication, HIV/AIDS, violence against women, and human rights.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Conflict and Peace
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
The twentieth century was the most bloody in history, and already conflict in this century has taken a heavy toll. Most wars are now within countries rather than between states, and often it is civilians that suffer most, especially women and children. This is an invaluable guide for students, peace groups, and activists. It examines the changing types of war, including the war on terror and ethnic conflict such as in Rwanda, the role of diplomacy and the UN, and what steps ordinary people are taking to rebuild communities. It offers ideas and inspiration for creating lasting peace.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Democracy
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Following the economic meltdown and the triumph of Barack Obama, have the chances of genuine democracy improved? In this updated edition of The No-Nonsense Guide to Democracy, Richard Swift explores how democracy has been constricted and deformed by economic power brokers and a self-serving political class from Birmingham to Bangalore. He considers the different tools people in power have used to manipulate democratic principles, such as freedom, to their advantage. The book includes chapter-length discussions of topics such as the economic meltdown, Barack Obama, eco-democracy, democratizing the economy, and democracy in the global south. It is also a guide to the rich diversity of forms of elected government, and it contains practical ideas for empowering today's voters around the world.
The No-Nonsense Guide to World Music
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
"World music" is an awkward phrase. Used to describe the hugely multifaceted nature of a range of typically non-English-language popular music from the world over, it's a tag that throws up as many problems as it does solutions.
Louise Gray's The No-Nonsense Guide to World Music attempts to go behind the phrase to explore the reasons for the contemporary interest in world music, who listens to it, and why. Through chapters that focus on specific areas of music, such as rembetika, fado, trance music, and new folk, Gray explores the genres that have emerged from marginalized communities, music in conflict zones, and music as escapism.
In this unique guide, which combines the seduction of sound with politics and social issues, the author makes the case for music as a powerful tool able to bring individuals together.
The No-Nonsense Guide to International Development
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
"The terms ""overseas aid"" and ""international development"" mask confusion, contradiction, and deceit. All too often what passes for development improves life for the better-off, while actively hurting the very people the venture was meant to support. Black argues that in order to truly defend the interests of the poor we need more realism, less hypocrisy, and a more accurate picture of what is happening in development's name."
The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Religion is a term that is often used in the media and public life without any clarification. However, it is a word that encompasses hundreds of different beliefs. It is a loaded word that has a different meaning for every person; religion can be seen as a source of war and peace, love and hate, dialogue and narrow-mindedness. Symon Hill's No-Nonsense Guide to Religion tries to explain what religion means, how we relate to it, how it was created, and how it affects us culturally, politically, and spiritually today. Drawing on a wide range of sources, The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion does not just concentrate on the popular and well-established traditions, which normally over-emphasize powerful figures. The guide also focuses on the diversity within religions as well as the similarities between them. The globalization of communications has made more people aware of religious conversion, with more people than ever before belonging to a different religious community from their parents. The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion considers how religion has shaped our culture as well as how our culture is shaping religion today. Symon Hill is a tutor in practical theology, a writer, a trainer, and an activist. He has written comment pieces for newspapers ranging from the Sunday Herald to The Daily Mail and contributes regularly to the Guardian's website, The Friend, and Ekklesia.
The No-Nonsense Guide to World History
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Wehmacht officer Bora is sent to recently occupied Crete and must investigate the brutal murder of a Red Cross representative befriended by Himmler. All the clues lead to a platoon of trigger-happy German paratroopers but is this the truth? Bora takes to the mountains of Crete to solve the case, navigating his way between local bandits and foreign resistance fighters.
NoNonsense International Development
Illusions and Realities
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
"Development" is often misunderstood and can embrace everything from large infrastructure projects to small-scale environmental initiatives. The idea can often mask confusion, contradiction, deceit and corruption. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to know what development actually is. It covers all the key themes and critically suggests ways to bring the poor and marginalised into the process. Maggie Black has written numerous books including titles for OUP, UNICEF and OXFAM. She has worked as a consultant for a number of NGOs (UNICEF, Anti-Slavery International and WaterAid amongst others) and has written for the Guardian, Economist, and BBC World Service.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Globalization is all around us. From the richest country to the poorest, every aspect of life is affected by global economics and communications. We all benefit...or do we? This No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization distills the arguments into a clear, concise commentary. It examines the debt trap, the acceleration of neo-liberalism and the free trade" model, competition for energy resources, and the links between the war on terror, the arms trade, and privatization. It looks at civil society alternatives to corporate globalization and the latest trade justice initiatives.
The No-Nonsense Guide to International Migration
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Virtually any commodity can move around the world to satisfy demand, but human beings have far less freedom. Many would-be migrants are forced to risk life and limb traveling illegally. Yet most rich countries are short of workers, have shrinking populations, and need more immigrants. This is a timely guide to a major issue that is never far from the political headlines. Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a consultant to a number of UN agencies. He has written two books on migration for the International Labor Organization.
No-Nonsense Guide to the Arms Trade
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
One of the few up-to-date works on the whole of the arms trade, this book puts the global trade in weapons in the context of history and includes recent controversial deals, as well as case studies on Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Darfur. It exposes the cynicism, bribery, and insider deals that characterize the conventional trade and the hidden world of torture.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Animal Rights
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Today animals need protecting more than ever: those bred for laboratories, zoos, and hunting, and also those reared intensively on farms. And out in the wild, animals are losing their habitats to environmental exploitation. Dispelling the myth that the protection of animals' rights is a modern, Western concern, this No-Nonsense Guide to Animal Rights explains the key issues, charts the growth of the animal rights movement, and looks at the welfare and protection laws. And it includes a practical day-to-day guide to what individuals can do to minimize exploitation.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Surveillance
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Spying, once the province of the KGB, CIA and MI5, has become part of everyday life. Governments routinely trawl our emails, CCTV cameras follow us on every street, while state databases of our DNA become larger all the time. This book shows the extent to which Big Brother is watching us all.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Degrowth and Sustainability
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
As El Salvador returns to peace after more than a decade of civil war, Eduardo Sosa, an unemployed sociologist, becomes fascinated by a homeless man who lives in a beat-up yellow Chevrolet Assuming his identity, Sosa unleashes a reign of terror on San Salvador with his snake accomplices. A macabre high-speed romp, in which violence and comedy become almost indistinguishable.
The No-Nonsense Guide to the United Nations
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
In the first book to distill the entire history of the United Nations into one accessible volume, Maggie Black explains how this complex organization works and explores its successes, failings, and current limitations. The book includes the creation of the UN and its early history, how it is structured, and whether it is well constituted in its functions. Black also considers possibilities for reform to make it more democratic, effective, and fit for its purpose. Maggie Black has written books for Oxford University Press, UNICEF, and Oxfam and articles for The Economist and BBC World Service. She has worked as a consultant for UNICEF and Anti-Slavery International.
NoNonsense Rethinking Education
Whose knowledge is it anyway?
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
What is knowledge? Who decides what is important? Who owns it? These are central themes that run through this title that aims to change perceptions and understanding of education. Using historical and contemporary examples, the authors examine the motivations, conflicts, and contradictions in education. In breaking down the structures, forces, and technologies involved they show how alternative approaches can emerge.
The No-Nonsense Guide To Blizzard Safety
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
This book could save your life! The No-Nonsense Guide To Blizzard Safety is the third in a series of crisis manuals focusing on natural (and man-made) disasters. This guide is designed to provide a comprehensive source for the latest research related to blizzard safety. Subjects covered include: providing a basic survey-level understanding of blizzards; how to be proactive in preparing for a blizzard; providing suggestions by government and weather professionals/researchers on the best courses of action before, during, & after a blizzard; what to do if trapped in a blizzard; what life-or-death issues remain after a blizzard has passed. This manual also contains several useful appendixes that include a suggestions about driving in treacherous winter weather and skidding protocols, a list of useful weather-warning smartphone and computer apps, and a detailed description of the various stages of frostbite.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Equality
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
The No-Nonsense Guide to Equality discusses the positive effects that equality can have, using examples and case studies from across the globe, including many from the United States. It examines the lessons of history and covers race, gender and ethnicity, age, and wealth. Danny Dorling considers, realistically, just how equal it is possible to be, the challenges we face, and the factors that will lead to greater equality for all.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Islam
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
This guide explains Islamic history, the Qur'an, sharia law, and Islam's relationship with the West. It analyzes the struggle within the faith for a more humane interpretation of the religion, issues surrounding women, democracy, and economic development, and the outlook post-9/11 and the Iraq war.
The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Covering fast food, organic food, junk food, institutional food, and more, this guide shows how "real food" has become increasingly scarce, with production and distribution increasingly dominated in the West by agri-business. The guide goes on to present the alternatives that are emerging based on the concept of community food security. Wayne Roberts is a leading North American writer, activist, and practitioner in community food security. An author and columnist for NOW Magazine, he's on the board of the Community Food Security Coalition and Food Secure Canada, and coordinates the Toronto Food Policy Council, the most respected city food group in the world.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Meeting the people who grow our bananas and cocoa and make our clothes, this No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade tells the human story behind what we consume. Examin-ing the global contest between "free" and "fair" trade, David Ransom argues that the key question is not whether trade should be regulated or deregulated, but whether it is to be the master or servant of the people. And as fair trade products are being turned into brands by large corporations, a new contest opens - it is no longer just a question of fair versus free, but what kind of fair trade.
The No-Nonsense Guide to World Population
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
No-Nonsense Guide to World Population (1/2 page) With world population passing seven billion and predicted to hit nine billion by 2050, we are in the grip of a number panic. This book explodes some of the common myths, looks at what the numbers really mean, and addresses nine topics, such as why women in most parts of the world have fewer children, what will happen to our societies as we all live longer, and how having babies relates to climate change. Vanessa Baird is co-editor at New Internationalist magazine. Her previous books include The No-Nonsense Guide to Sexual Diversity and, as compiler and editor, Eye to Eye Women.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
An in-depth look at two decades of a movement that aims to challenge the ethical foundations of the global market. Transnational corporations look for the cheapest suppliers, while the fair trade movement insists on a premium for the producers at the start of the chain. Sally Blundell uncovers the origins of fair trade and what it is likely to become.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Human Rights
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Since the Declaration of Human Rights over fifty years ago, we acknowledge that universal rights exist, but what does this mean to someone who is tortured or denied education, work, or asylum? This No-Nonsense Guide to Human Rights looks at the theories of rights and universalism. It explores the difficult task of trying to protect human rights in war, the legal advances that have led to some rights abusers facing justice, and the conflicts that can occur when rights collide with culture.
The No-Nonsense Guide to World Poverty
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
This guide questions conventional thinking about wealth and poverty-is the opposite of poverty really wealth, or is it safety and sufficiency? Drawing on experience of poor people all over the world, the author gives voice to those whose views are rarely sought and shows how we all need to live more modestly to make poverty history.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Tourism
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
This guide demystifies the often invisible impacts of global tourism, one of the biggest industries in the world, from labor conditions to development by stealth, to the role of elites and the cultural impacts on both the visitor and the visited.
It also takes in themes such as the gap year and the role of travel and vacations in Western cultures, and examines the “happy smiling faces” syndrome and asks whether this is just a reworking of old colonial relationships
The No-Nonsense Guide to Sexual Diversity
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
The treatment of sexual minorities-whether lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender-varies significantly in different parts of the world. In some countries, equal rights have been achieved and progress is being made against discrimination; in others, being gay still incurs the death penalty. This guide examines all the colors of the sexual rainbow, unearths hidden histories, and looks at contributions from medicine and science. It also includes a unique global survey of laws that affect sexual minorities. Vanessa Baird has been co-editor at New Internationalist magazine since 1986. Her previous books include, as compiler and editor, Eye to Eye Women.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Finance
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
An incisive introduction to global finance-where money comes from, the current mechanisms, and the need for control and reform. It traces the origins of money as a source of exchange and a store of value and the many weird forms it now takes-visible and invisible. The guide sets recent events into context, indicating how the flows of money directed by an unaccountable elite increasingly shape economic, political, and social activity. Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a consultant to a number of UN agencies. He is author of the No-Nonsense Guide to International Migration.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Women's Rights
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
Has the battle for women's rights been won? Not when women still make up 70 percent of the world's poor. This guide examines the advances that have been made and looks beneath the surface to find out what the reality is for women all around the world. It shows how, in this "post-feminist" age, women's rights are still very much an issue. Nikki van der Gaag is a freelance writer, editor, and evaluator on development issues. Prior to this, she was editorial director at the Panos Institute and co-editor of the New Internationalist magazine.
The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Terrorism
Part of the No-Nonsense Guides series
This is a highly accessible history of terrorism that looks at core examples from the Middle East, instances of state terrorism, and terrorist fringes of political movements. It covers the theories justifying and guiding terrorist acts and the battle of images that accompanies them. Jonathan Barker has taught political science at the universities of Toronto, Arizona, and Dar es Salam. He has researched local politics in Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and India. His other books include Street-Level Democracy and Rural Communities under Stress.