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Books in Social sciences

The Social Sciences collection forms a definitive resource for those entering, researching, or teaching in any of the many disciplines making up this interdisciplinary area of study. Written by experts and researchers from both Academic and Commercial domains, titles offer global scope and perspectives.

Key subject areas include: Library and Information Science; Transportation; Urban Studies; Geography, Planning, and Development; Security; Emergency Management.

  • Navigating Education 5.0 into the Metaverse

    Educational Technologies of the Future
    • 1st Edition
    • October 1, 2026
    • Robertas Damaševičius
    • English
    Navigating Education 5.0 into the Metaverse: Educational Technologies of the Future addresses the informational needs and daily challenges of readers by providing a comprehensive, up-to-date resource on the latest ideas and advances in educational technologies, and by offering guidance on how to effectively integrate these technologies into teaching practice and design technology-enhanced learning experiences. This is an area of key current interest to educators, librarians and researchers.
  • Reinventing Transit for the 21st Century

    • 1st Edition
    • October 1, 2026
    • Baruch Feigenbaum
    • English
    Reinventing Transit for the 21st Century addresses the critical state of urban transit systems in the U.S., exacerbated by declining ridership and looming fiscal challenges post-COVID. The book advocates for substantial reforms, including transitioning to contracted services, fostering competition, and redesigning transit boards to emphasize expertise over politics. It also calls for integrating various service modes and adopting new technologies to reduce costs and enhance the rider experience.Spanning 10 chapters, the book begins with an overview of current transit systems and the factors behind their decline. It outlines a vision for modern transit, focusing on customer needs, service redesign, complementary services like bike-sharing, funding mechanisms, and international lessons on contracting. Governance improvements and the role of technology are also discussed, with a concluding chapter presenting a model 21st-century transit system.Accessible to political leaders, transit executives, researchers, planners, and riders, the book includes a glossary for clarity. It emphasizes the importance of serving transit-dependent riders, often from lower-income Communities of Color, to boost ridership and provide essential services. This book is essential for anyone invested in the future of urban transit.
  • Global Risks and Energy System Resilience

    • 1st Edition
    • September 1, 2026
    • Jun Zhao + 2 more
    • English
    Global Risks and Energy System Resilience examines the intricate interplay between various global risks and the resilience of energy systems. This comprehensive reference delves into the complex geopolitical, economic, and financial factors that shape energy security today, offering a structured framework for understanding and addressing challenges. It covers crucial topics such as the evolution of energy system resilience, the development of an evaluation framework, and the quantification of the impacts of geopolitical, financial, and economic risks. Researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals in energy strategy and policy evaluation, energy system resilience optimization, and risk avoidance policies will find this book invaluable.This book follows the logical framework of “indicator measurement-impact assessment-scenario prediction.” It first analyzes the current situation and provides an overview of global risks and the energy system resilience, then measures the levels of different types of global risks and energy system resilience, and then analyzes the spatio-temporal evolution law. Second, the theoretical transmission mechanism of different kinds of risks on energy system resilience is analyzed through literature and theoretical review. Next, the actual impacts of different kinds of risks on energy system resilience are assessed by corresponding econometric models. Finally, the influencing factors affecting the resilience of energy systems under a digital background are identified to predict the future development of energy system resilience.
  • Handbook of Culture and Economic Behavior

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 1
    • September 1, 2026
    • English
    Handbook of Culture and Economic Behavior series, highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters. Each chapter is written by an international board of authors.
  • Positioning Your Library for the 21st Century

    Strategies for Engagement, Relevance and Sustainability
    • 1st Edition
    • September 1, 2026
    • Cordelia Anderson
    • English
    Libraries today face increasing pressure to do more, serve more people, and respond faster—often with limited resources and heightened public scrutiny. This book helps library professionals gain perspective on today’s operating environments and make more intentional, sustainable choices. Drawing on real-world examples from public and academic libraries, it examines how hidden operational and communication barriers limit access, reduce engagement, and disproportionately affect underserved communities—and how those barriers can be identified and removed. It also explores how internal factors, including organizational culture, shape a library’s ability to adapt and change, how libraries prepare for and navigate crises with clarity and coordination, and how they balance immediate response with long-term trust. The book further examines how libraries navigate advocacy, neutrality, and public trust, and how the narratives they share with staff, stakeholders, and communities influence long-term relevance and support. Ultimately, it is designed to help libraries focus on high-impact work aligned with values, capacity, and community needs.
  • Social Justice and Healthcare

    Intersections of Political Philosophy and Healthcare
    • 1st Edition
    • September 1, 2026
    • William O'Donohue
    • English
    Social Justice and Healthcare: Intersections of Political Philosophy and Healthcare addresses the pressing need for a comprehensive resource that connects the principles of social and economic justice with the realities of healthcare practice. Clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, nurses, and medical professionals face daily challenges related to fairness, discrimination, and access to care, yet lack a unified reference that integrates philosophical frameworks with actionable insights for healthcare delivery. The reference surveys nearly 70 influential social justice theorists and 20 healthcare economists, offering an extensive overview of major thought in this domain. Structured into two major sections, the book first explores the evolution of political philosophy as it relates to justice, fairness, and access, profiling key figures from Plato and Kant to Rawls and Nussbaum. The second section contextualizes these theories within the field of healthcare, introducing foundational health economists and examining core issues such as managed care, the Affordable Care Act, and healthcare reform. Each chapter distills complex ideas into accessible, clinically relevant summaries, providing the historical context and practical implications essential for healthcare professionals. Social Justice and Healthcare empowers clinicians with the knowledge to navigate ethical dilemmas, advocate for justice in healthcare systems, and improve patient outcomes. By integrating diverse scholarly voices and economic perspectives, this reference enhances critical thinking and problem-solving skills, equipping its readers to address inequities and advance reform within their clinical practice.
  • Technological Inclusion and Climate Innovation

    Comparative Pathways for Just and Equitable Transitions Across Global Societies
    • 1st Edition
    • September 1, 2026
    • Samuel Chukwujindu Nwokolo + 3 more
    • English
    Technological Inclusion and Climate Innovation: Comparative Pathways for Just and Equitable Transitions Across Global Societies offers a groundbreaking, equity-focused roadmap that redefines climate innovation by integrating sociotechnical inclusion, institutional foresight, and comparative global metrics. Sections cover global disparities in climate exposure and technological capacity, social equity, governance, cultural interfaces, national strategies, geopolitics, smart cities, circular economies, digital climate governance, innovation ecosystems, climate education, and future scenarios. Novel indices such as the Inclusion-Readiness Nexus (IRN), Innovation Gradient Index (IGI), and Synergistic Transition Potential (STP) are introduced to assess and compare climate-tech inclusion.The work also presents strategic foresight models and policy roadmaps for equitable climate technology deployment aligned with Sustainable Development Goals. It is invaluable to interdisciplinary scholars, policymakers, strategists, and practitioners engaged in sustainability, technology, governance, and equity. It benefits environmental scientists, political scientists, urban planners, STS scholars, digital sociologists, global governance experts, climate policy researchers, innovation economists, and professionals in public-private partnerships, climate-tech startups, and multilateral organizations.
  • Safety Analysis and Risk Control

    From Theory to Implementation
    • 1st Edition
    • August 3, 2026
    • Mohammad Yazdi
    • English
    Safety Analysis and Risk Control: From Theory to Implementation provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamental principles of risk analysis, emphasizing their relevance and application in making safety a top priority across industries, offering both depth and breadth in coverage. Following an introduction to core concepts and methodologies, the book considers hazard identification, risk assessment techniques, mitigation strategies, and the implementation of safety measures, supported by real-world, integrated case studies and applications throughout. Each chapter provides practical exercises, tools, and resources to enable readers to apply safety and risk control concepts directly to their work environments.Interac... data sets, hosted on a companion website, encourage active engagement with the material, while an instructor's manual and lecture slides support teaching. As industries face increasingly complex safety challenges and regulatory requirements, this book fulfills an urgent need for clear guidelines and tools to implement effective risk control measures of relevance to students and professionals across the fields of occupational health and safety, environmental science, engineering, business management, and public health, among others.
  • Encyclopedia of Ecology

    • 3rd Edition
    • August 1, 2026
    • Brian D. Fath
    • English
    Encyclopedia of Ecology, Third Edition, Four Volume Set - with over 300 chapters - once again provides a comprehensive reference work covering the current ideas and practices in ecology.Ecology is the ideal field for studying complex, adaptive, and self-organizing systems and by observing and understanding ecosystems, it provides valuable insights into creating sustainable systems. This knowledge is essential for addressing challenges in areas such as land management, environmental policy development, urban metabolism, industrial symbiosis, the global commons, and renewable energy.Ecology traditionally focused on measuring species abundance and distribution through field observations to establish a baseline understanding of nature. More recently, it emphasizes the relationships within populations, among species, and with their environment—networks of life central to this encyclopedia. Understanding these ecological connections is key to sustainability science and human-nature interactions. Current research spans biodiversity loss, soil conservation, sustainable agriculture, emerging diseases, eco-mimicry, and climate change. Ecological education and environmental literacy are increasingly integrated into curricula.Written and edited by an international team of experts and with special focus on interdisciplinary work in socio-ecological systems, this 3rd edition again links theory with application, and helps allow students needing entry-level summaries of specific ecology topics to create connections and find relevant, more in-depth resources in this exciting field.
  • Digital Twin Technology for Autonomous Electric Vehicles

    Recent Trends and Future Perspectives
    • 1st Edition
    • August 1, 2026
    • Jeevanand Seshadrinath + 4 more
    • English
    Digital Twin Technology for Autonomous Electric Vehicles: Recent Trends and Future Perspectives serves as an essential guide for researchers, advanced students, and engineering professionals eager to harness the transformative potential of this cutting-edge approach. The volume offers an in-depth exploration of the intersection of DT software and AEVs, highlighting how this innovative strategy enhances vehicle functionality, efficiency, safety, and user experience. Reviewing the latest research outcomes and trends and touching on future perspectives, it provides a clear and actionable, step-by-step roadmap that also considers cybersecurity, regulation, ethics, and environmental friendliness.Valuabl... case studies that incorporate practical insights and lessons learned are blended into the work, providing context and application examples in diverse settings. The experts behind the insightful chapters successfully respond to the need for a multidisciplinary resource that bridges theory and best practices while fostering collaborative efforts to further identify and leverage opportunities.