OA eBooks Collection

“What motivates international scientists to research and teach at German Universities? How successful is their professional and social integration? What are their long-term career objectives?
The MIND study at GATE-Germany (a consortium for international university marketing funded by DAAD and HRK) comprehensively surveyed international post-doctoral academics for the first time on their decision motivation, organisational challenges and their professional and social integration across all participating universities. The resulting quantitative data delivers empirical information about needs and decision criteria of young, post-doctoral academics and therefore expands the experience knowledge of the universities.”

Humanity as never before shares a common destiny, whether it be in terms of the resources of the planet, the global environment, economic integration, or the movement of peoples, ideas, cultures. For better or worse humankind is a Community of Shared Destiny 命运共同体. The People’s Republic of China under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and its ‘Chairman of Everything’, Xi Jinping, has declared that it shares in the destiny of the countries of the Asia and Pacific region, as well as of nations that are part of an intertwined national self-interest. The Party, according to Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theory, is the vanguard of progressive social forces; it cleaves to the concept of shared destiny and its historical role in shaping that destiny. Since its early days nearly a century ago it has emphasised the collective over the individual, the end rather than the means. It addresses majority opinion while guiding and moulding the agenda both for today, and for the future.

“中国经济前沿”丛书致力于对中国经济发展中的热点问题提供最新的研究成果与解读视角，作者均为国内外相关研究领域最具权威或居于研究前沿的学者。收录的论文无论在理论研究还是实证分析方面，都具有相当高的水准。本书集中于全球金融危机对中国的影响，分别从经济、地缘政治和环境气候变化视角解读世界和中国未来的发展走势。

The Representation of Science and Scientists on Postage Stamps examines how the postal authorities of the world have developed unique techniques to portray science and scientists in order to convey a message behind the stamp issue. It is a multi-disciplinary examination that investigates visual representation, semiotics, science, science history and politics, amongst other issues. The author introduces and describes a technique for looking at how and why images may have been chosen. Is the image a mirror reflecting a known reality or is it a lens to challenge, to prompt further thought or action? He also hypothesises that the Internet created a real change to science communication, influencing the way images of science were used. The stamp message changed from that of pursuing a public understanding approach to an awareness of science with its increasing contextual content.

This book presents the material covered in graduate lectures delivered at The Australian National University in 2010. Real Harmonic Analysis originates from the seminal works of Zygmund and Calderón, pursued by Stein, Weiss, Fefferman, Coifman, Meyer and many others. Moving from the classical periodic setting to the real line, then to higher dimensional Euclidean spaces and finally to, nowadays, sets with minimal structures, the theory has reached a high level of applicability. This is why it is called real harmonic analysis: the usual exponential functions have disappeared from the picture. Set and function decomposition prevail.

This collection deals with an ancient institution in Eastern Polynesia called the rahui, a form of restricting access to resources and/or territories. While tapu had been extensively discussed in the scientific literature on Oceanian anthropology, the rahui is quite absent from secondary modern literature. This situation is all the more problematic because individual actors, societies, and states in the Pacific are readapting such concepts to their current needs, such as environment regulation or cultural legitimacy. This book assembles a comprehensive collection of current works on the rahui from a legal pluralism perspective. This study as a whole underlines the new assertion of identity that has flowed from the cultural dimension of the rahui. Today, rahui have become a means for indigenous communities to be fully recognised on a political level. Some indigenous communities choose to restore the rahui in order to preserve political control of their territory or, in some cases, to get it back. For the state, better control of the rahui represents a way of asserting its legitimacy and its sovereignty, in the face of this reassertion by indigenous communities.

Protected Area Governance and Management presents a compendium of original text, case studies and examples from across the world, by drawing on the literature, and on the knowledge and experience of those involved in protected areas. The book synthesises current knowledge and cutting-edge thinking from the diverse branches of practice and learning relevant to protected area governance and management. It is intended as an investment in the skills and competencies of people and consequently, the effective governance and management of protected areas for which they are responsible, now and into the future. The global success of the protected area concept lies in its shared vision to protect natural and cultural heritage for the long term, and organisations such as International Union for the Conservation of Nature are a unifying force in this regard. Nonetheless, protected areas are a socio-political phenomenon and the ways that nations understand, govern and manage them is always open to contest and debate. The book aims to enlighten, educate and above all to challenge readers to think deeply about protected areas—their future and their past, as well as their present.

The ANU Archives holds records about all 27 Australian prime ministers in the Noel Butlin Archives Centre and in the university’s own archives. Prime ministers have been supporters, visitors, Council members, fellows, students, and even Chancellor of the Australian National University. Prime ministers have also been trade unionists and businessmen, and have been lobbied by trade unions, companies and industry associations, leaving their traces in the business and trade union collections of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre.

The authors, Michael Piggott (Australian Prime Ministers Centre fellow) and Maggie Shapley (ANU University Archivist), bring their considerable archival knowledge to the task of mapping prime ministers in the archival landscape and highlighting the prime ministerial riches which are found in the archives. The guide offers an extensive listing of relevant subject and personal files, minutes of meetings, rare printed items, photographs and audiovisual material, dating from the 19th to the 21st century, and ten short studies showing how these records might be used.

Coral Mary Bell AO, who died in 2012, was one of the world’s foremost academic experts on international relations, crisis management and alliance diplomacy. This collection of essays by more than a dozen of her friends and colleagues is intended to honour her life and examine her ideas and, through them, her legacy. 
Part 1 describes her growing up during the Great Depression and the Second World War, her short-lived sojourn in the Department of External Affairs in Canberra, where she was friends with some of the spies who worked for Moscow, and her academic career over the subsequent six decades, the last three of which were at The Australian National University.
Most of Coral’s academic career was spent in Departments of International Relations. She was disdainful of academic theory, but as discussed in Part 2, she had a very sophisticated understanding of the subject. She was in many ways a Realist, but one for whom agency, in terms of ideas (the beliefs and perceptions of policy-makers) and institutions (including conventions and norms of behaviour), essentially determined events.
Part 3 is concerned with power politics, including such matters as Cold War competitions, crisis management, alliance diplomacy, and US and Australian foreign policies. She recognised that power politics left untrammelled was inevitably catastrophic, and was increasingly attracted to notions of Concerts of Power.

The book is a critical examination of affirmative action, a form of preferential development often used to address the situation of disadvantaged groups. It uses a trans-global approach, as opposed to the comparative approach, to examine the relationship between affirmative action, ethnic conflict and the role of the state in Fiji, Malaysia and South Africa. While affirmative action has noble goals, there are often intervening political and ideological factors in the form of ethno-nationalism and elite interests, amongst others, which potentially undermine fair distribution of affirmative action resources. The book examines the affirmative action philosophies and programs of the three countries and raises pertinent questions about whether affirmative action has led to equality, social justice, harmony and political stability and explores future possibilities.

If global challenges in food production and the impact of ever-declining biodiversity are to be tackled, every country will need plant biologists who have a deep understanding of plant morphology, physiology and genetics, and how these interact to affect plant function in changing environments. These scientists will also need the capacity to use an effective and powerful set of technologies and research strategies. To prepare and inspire our students to become that next generation of researchers and to instill a meaningful involvement in research we created an integrated set of laboratory investigations that we felt truly reflected the mysteries of plant biology and puzzle-solving processes that we had encountered in our research experience. Rather than a set of unconnected experimental activities, we created a series of closely related experiments that focused on solving ‘mysteries’ in the life of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress). The activities charge students with finding the ‘suspect’ gene responsible for the specific phenotypes of an unknown Arabidopsis mutant, which are encountered when they expose the plants to different environmental stresses. This, we hoped, would give keen but inexperienced student scientists a realistic taste of the joys (and frustrations!) of plant science research.

Although thrilled by numerous university and national awards for our innovative teaching, we have been most excited by the interest in our ideas and experimental approaches from other plant science educators in Australia and overseas, who are also seeking to improve their plant biology curriculum and attract more students to plant sciences. We are thus proud to present this manual as a gift to our colleagues worldwide. Here you will find a detailed collection of state-of-the-art procedures in plant biology, as well as background information on more commonly used techniques, and tips for class preparation. The concepts and methods we present can be adapted to meet the specific needs and expertise of the teaching staff, and provide inspiration for scaling up for larger audiences, or simplifying for more junior classes. Through this publication, we hope to support our teaching colleagues in making a significant impact on improving the learning experience of plant biology students worldwide, and hope that we will motivate and inspire a new generation of plant detectives.

Although there are many books on project management, few address the issues associated with scientific research. This work is based on extensive scientific research and management experiences and is designed to provide an introduction to planning and managing scientific research for the beginning researcher. The aim is to build an understanding of the nature of scientific research, and the way in which research projects can be developed, planned and managed to a successful outcome. The book is designed to help the transition from being a member of a research team to developing a project and making them work, and to provide a framework for future work. The emphasis of the book is on broadly applicable principles that can be of value irrespective of discipline. It should be of value to researchers in the later stages of Ph.D. work and Postdoctoral workers, and also for independent researchers.

This book brings together experts from around the world to consider specific issues pertaining to regional integration and governance within small states. The authors collectively address the challenges posed to small states by the quickened pace of globalisation. The lessons learnt from the experiences of small states are then used to draw policy lessons for the Pacific island countries.
Pacific Islands Regional Integration and Governance will be of interest and relevance to academics and advanced students of the Pacific, its history and current challenges, as well as the general reader who has an interest in the area.

In June 2007, The Australian National University’s College of Law hosted an extraordinary symposium in Canberra of religious leaders to discuss the issue of religion and world peace. In a world torn by violence and intolerance in the name of religion, the visit to Australia of His Holiness the Dalai Lama represented an ideal opportunity to bring together representatives of the Buddhist, Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions to further the fundamental message that the world’s religions are really causes for peace and harmony. In the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, representatives of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic spiritual traditions explained why their respective traditions embodied the highest ideals of wisdom and compassion and thus were not the principal cause of war and dissention within society. As part of that process, this volume includes chapters that explain the basic tenets of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism. Experts in their fields have written these chapters for the sole purpose of presenting their spiritual tradition in as transparent and accessible a form as possible.

The Australian Council for International Development is the peak body of Australian international development NGOs. This book explores ACFID’s history since its founding in 1965, drawing on current and contemporary literature as well as extensive archival material. The trends and challenges in international development are seen through the lens of an NGO peak body: from the heady optimism of the first Development Decade of the 1960s, through the growth in government support of NGOs in the 1980s, to the challenges of the 2010s. The major themes of ACFID are presented: human rights; gender justice; humanitarianism; NGO codes of conduct; and influencing government policy both broadly and as it relates to NGOs. Each of these themes is placed in a global context and in relation to what other NGO networks are doing internationally.

Since 2009 there has been a fundamental shift in the way that the Pacific Island states engage with regional and world politics. The region has experienced, what Kiribati President Anote Tong has aptly called, a ‘paradigm shift’ in ideas about how Pacific diplomacy should be organised, and on what principles it should operate. Many leaders have called for a heightened Pacific voice in global affairs and a new commitment to establishing Pacific Island control of this diplomatic process. This change in thinking has been expressed in the establishment of new channels and arenas for Pacific diplomacy at the regional and global levels and new ways of connecting the two levels through active use of intermediate diplomatic associations. The New Pacific Diplomacy brings together a range of analyses and perspectives on these dramatic new developments in Pacific diplomacy at sub-regional, regional and global levels, and in the key sectors of global negotiation for Pacific states – fisheries, climate change, decolonisation, and trade.