Skip to main content

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.

  • Health on the Move 3: The Reviews - volume II

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 18
    • August 1, 2026
    • English
  • Assembling Smart Cyber-Physical Systems

    Heterogeneous, Diffuse and Green Technological Infrastructures for Cities and Industries
    • 1st Edition
    • August 1, 2026
    • Zakaria Benomar + 3 more
    • English
    Assembling Smart Cyber-Physical Systems: Heterogeneous, Diffuse and Green Technological Infrastructures for Cities and Industries offers a comprehensive approach on how to design, implement, and use Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs)-computing systems with a strong interaction between the physical environment (equipped with sensors and actuators) and the cyber realm (the Cloud). Through a carefully structured methodological approach to systems design, readers will learn how the infrastructure continuum represents our environment, where we can move from edge computing to the Cloud, going through fog resources to set up an entire framework for services deployment and application in smart cities and industries.As dealing with complex systems has become increasingly difficult, CPSs are increasingly critical to cope with integrating software, which people are used to, with hardware, which is distributed among different domains. This book shows how to deal with such systems where there is no distinction among the different parts: computing, storage, networking, and IoT all contribute to setting up the modern processing environments, thus it is mandatory to keep them simultaneously under control.
  • Introduction to International Disaster Management

    • 5th Edition
    • August 1, 2026
    • Damon P. Coppola
    • English
    Introduction to International Disaster Management, Fifth Edition, offers an unbiased, global perspective for students and practitioners alike. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the disaster management profession, covering the varied sources of risk and vulnerability, the systems that exist to manage hazard risk, and the many different stakeholders involved, from individuals to global organizations. This text also serves as a reference on scores of disaster management topics, including various technological and intentional hazards, on international disaster management structures and systems, on global humanitarian spending and support, and much more. Taking a real-world approach with considerable illustration through case studies and recent and historical disaster events, this book prepares students interested in joining the disaster management community to understand the work they will be doing. In addition, it assists those who already work with the disaster management community by helping them better navigate this complex environment.Fully updated throughout, the new edition includes revised workflows and communications, coverage of emerging global hazards and recent disaster events, and revised sections on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems, and emerging technologies for disaster risk reduction and resilience. Special emphasis is placed throughout on environmental justice, social justice, gender, and equality in global disaster management approaches. Recent disasters addressed across in-depth case studies include the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Tonga Eruption, regional heatwaves, the Beirut Port Explosion, the 2021 Haiti Earthquake, Typhoon Rai, the 2021 Surfside Condo Collapse, the 2022 South Asia Floods, and notable earthquakes. Another Voice - Expert Input boxes, along with extended exhibits, key word definitions, and chapter summaries enhance understanding, along with updated ancillary materials for students and instructors alike.
  • Smart Cities: A System of Systems Perspective

    Engineering, Analytics, and Innovations for Sustainable Urban Development
    • 1st Edition
    • August 1, 2026
    • Iman Rahimi + 3 more
    • English
    Smart Cities: A System of Systems Perspective offers a comprehensive exploration of System of Systems Engineering (SoSE) principles as they pertain to the development of smart cities. This multidisciplinary volume delves into how analytics and innovative technologies can transform urban environments, equipping readers with the knowledge to optimize city operations, enhance public services, and promote sustainable urban growth. With a blend of theoretical foundations, practical methodologies, and real-world examples, this book serves as an essential guide for anyone interested in the future of urban living.Structured into seven insightful parts, the book begins with the foundational concepts of SoSE and key principles of smart cities, exploring emergent behavior and interoperability. It then examines the integration of SoSE within urban infrastructure, highlighting the roles of IoT, AI, and machine learning. Subsequent sections focus on core technologies and analytical tools, including data analytics, predictive modeling, and decision support systems tailored for urban planning. Readers will also discover innovative solutions to pressing urban challenges, such as sustainability, cybersecurity, and governance, alongside detailed case studies showcasing successful smart city initiatives from around the globe.This book is invaluable for academics and researchers in urban studies, engineering, analytics, IoT, and AI, as well as data scientists and analytics professionals working with urban datasets. Graduate and postgraduate students in engineering, analytics, computer science, or urban studies will find it a crucial resource, while educators designing courses on smart cities or system analytics can leverage its insights to enhance their curriculum. Whether you are a policymaker, planner, or industry professional, Smart Cities: A System of Systems Perspective provides the tools and knowledge needed to navigate and shape the future of urban development.
  • Digital Transformation in Retail Supply Chain Management for Logistics 5.0

    • 1st Edition
    • July 1, 2026
    • Adnan Ahmed Sheikh + 3 more
    • English
    Digital Transformation in Retail Supply Chain Management for Logistics 5.0 explains how these technologies are reshaping retail supply chain management. The book elucidates on the digital tools and strategies organizations can employ to optimize their retail supply chain management, minimize costs, enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve sustainability objectives through industry 5.0-enabled technologies. It innovatively blends the details of recent advancements across retail supply chains and supply chain-related digital transformations. Its cutting-edge perspective makes it an invaluable asset for industry professionals, policymakers, business owners, managers, researchers, practitioners, academicians, instructors, and students in retail, logistics supply chain management, digital business, and innovation.The book explores the nuances of the Supply Network 5.0, discussing the synergy between humans and machines, especially in the context of robotic process automation systems and artificial intelligence tools in the “new normal” of retail supply chain management. In addition, it specifically addresses textile products, FMCG, online products, construction, food and beverages, the shoe industry, SMEs, and other manufacturing sectors. Other sections delves into the often-overlooked environmental sustainability ramifications of the Fifth Industrial Revolution.
  • GenAI in Higher Education

    Ethical Frontiers, Challenge and Sustainable Pathways
    • 1st Edition
    • July 1, 2026
    • Upasana Gitanjali Singh
    • English
    GenAI in Higher Education: Ethical Frontiers, Challenge and Sustainable Pathways fills a critical gap in discussing generative AI’s ethical impact on higher education. With AI adoption accelerating, the book provides a resource that offers clear, actionable guidance on implementing AI responsibly, focusing on academic integrity, fairness, and governance. It helps to ensure that AI is a tool for inclusive, transparent, and sustainable learning.
  • International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics

    • 3rd Edition
    • Volume 14
    • June 24, 2026
    • Hilary Nesi + 1 more
    • English
    Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 14 Volume Set is the most authoritative, comprehensive and international reference work of its kind. Ground-breaking in its sheer scope – the 2nd edition had almost 3,000 chapters – no other linguistics reference work matches it for sheer broadness of coverage. Over the years it has been a much-loved and invaluable resource for researchers, academics, students and professionals in linguistics, anthropology, education, psychology, language acquisition and pathology, cognitive science, sociology and media/cultural studies. Led by a brand new and outstanding international editorial team, the 3rd edition will be thoroughly modernized to address the considerable growth and development in this field since the previous edition published in 2005. Existing chapters will be revised and updated, obsolete material removed and approximately 300 brand-new chapters will be commissioned to cover newer areas of research such as machine learning and natural language processing. Significant multimedia such as high-quality figures, audio files (highlighting differences in accent and dialects within languages) will be available to complement the text content, and chapters will follow a consistent chapter template in order to provide a logical reading experience for the user. The end-result will be an outstanding and market-leading reference work: modern, fully up to date, easy to navigate via its electronic platform, and logistically and consistently structured. Once again it will be the perfect resource for the modern-day language scholar.
  • School Security

    How to Build and Strengthen a School Security Program
    • 3rd Edition
    • June 1, 2026
    • Paul Timm
    • English
    School Security: How to Build and Strengthen a School Safety Program, Third Edition emphasizes a proactive rather than reactive approach to school security. Through a holistic approach, rather than focusing on a particular threat or event, readers are introduced to basic loss prevention and safety concepts. The book covers fundamental CPTED concepts and addresses bullying, teen suicide, harassment, and dating violence. This updated new edition includes new information throughout on topics such as new legislative requirements, technological advancements such as AI, communications and access control, and even a parent’s guide to school safety.The book discusses how to positively influence student behavior, lead staff training programs, and write sound security policies. It presents complex security concepts in straightforward language that resonates with educational stakeholders who may not have security backgrounds. It recognizes the financial constraints facing most educational institutions and prioritizes cost-effective solutions. Tiered implementation strategies allow schools to enhance security incrementally within available resources. It also emphasizes integrating security measures into school culture, balancing robust security with maintaining an open, welcoming educational environment—a critical concern overlooked in more technically-oriented security literature.
  • Models and Measures for Sustainable City Logistics

    Behavioral Choice Processes
    • 1st Edition
    • June 1, 2026
    • Francesco Russo + 1 more
    • English
    Models and Measures for Sustainable City: Behavioral Choice Processes Logistics offers a thorough understanding of urban freight movements, focusing on behavioral aspects of consumers. It outlines the role of modelling the behavioral aspects of people determining urban freight movements, mapping the behavior of the end consumer and the retailer which generates freight movements in an urban context. It provides new methods of urban freight transport simulation, taking into account the challenges of sustainable development goals, and uses the most recent approaches in modelling for city logistics scenario design and planning. It also outlines the relationships between measures and main components (expressed by indicators) of sustainable development.This book guides readers in implementing the most effective city logistics measures and actions, addressing the choice of a set of measures and the definition of planning scenarios. Readers are introduced to simulation methods for estimating impacts and system performance, which can be used for comparing the future scenario outcomes according to the set of target indicators defined by Agenda 2030. The book first specifies end consumer behaviors in purchasing processes, analyzing the individual phases of the purchase. The retailer’s behaviors are then specified, and after specifying the patterns of the decision makers, the quantities of goods that constitute the references for the choices of the decision makers are analyzed. Finally, the book presents the problems whose solution makes it possible to identify the vehicles of the various types and then the flows on the network. The overall structure of the model system and the specification of each single model are then given. Some models calibrated in different real cases are presented, highlighting their applicability to other contexts. Finally, implementable measures are presented and the relationships between measures and main components (expressed by indicators) of sustainable development are examined.Transport technicians, post-graduate students, and academics alike will find this a valuable resource for understanding how to incorporate user behavior into transport planning and logistics modeling, ultimately helping them to optimize processes and promote sustainability.
  • Uneven Urban and Regional Growth

    Global Urbanization, Regional Economies and Local Dynamics
    • 1st Edition
    • June 1, 2026
    • Luca Salvati
    • English
    Uneven Urban and Regional Growth: Global Urbanization, Regional Economies and Local Dynamics examines the links between economic growth, metropolitan development, and environmental sustainability in advanced economies. Focusing on urban areas as hubs of innovation and social change, the book explores how social and environmental factors intersect with economic processes. It advocates for new governance strategies that promote sustainable growth through inclusive policies and integrated urban tools. Drawing on regional economics, it offers a comparative analysis of settlement patterns and spatial planning, emphasizing multilevel governance to address social inequalities and contemporary urban challenges effectively.Structur... in three sections, the book begins with a global-to-regional perspective on urbanization and economic dynamics, featuring analyses of uneven economic growth, urban-rural dynamics, and urbanization trends supported by global statistics and case studies from the United States, Iran, and Italy. The second section delves into socio-demographic drivers of urbanization at the regional and district levels, including population dynamics, family patterns, migration, and environmental health indicators in Mediterranean contexts. The final section focuses on local planning and territorial factors influencing urbanization, addressing topics such as landscape quality, labor markets, sustainable regional development, port infrastructure economics, and gendered urban spaces. Richly illustrated with photographs, graphs, maps, and case studies, the book integrates interdisciplinary perspectives from applied economics, geography, sociology, demography, planning, and socio-environmental sciences.This volume is an essential resource for scholars, researchers, and advanced students in academia seeking an interdisciplinary understanding of urban complexity. It also serves practitioners and stakeholders including planners, architects, urban policymakers, environmental scientists, agronomists, ecologists, and local development experts. By combining academic rigor with practical insights, the book equips its audience with innovative frameworks and comparative analyses to address the multifaceted challenges of sustainable urban and regional growth in today’s dynamic world.