Wherever you are right now, there’s a good chance that an object in your vicinity is connected to the stories told in this book. The phone in your pocket, the chair you’re sitting on, or the shirt you’re wearing – they likely travelled to you on a large container ship, which burned bunker fuel. Alternatively, petroleum-based substances were likely used in their production, which involved the generation of waste oils. We rarely talk about waste oils or bunker fuel, yet they are essenti...

In recent decades all sorts of illicit medicines have been increasingly traded world-wide: from antibiotics to weight loss drugs, and antimalarial tablets to steroids. The illicit medicines market is generally associated with considerable health risks for its users, as well as with high revenues and a perceived growing degree of criminal organization. It is therefore important to gain extensive criminological insights into this global market. This book provides indepth and empirically-grounde...

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, governments introduced stress tests to measure and monitor banks’ health. Breaking the Bank? assesses whether the EU‑wide banking stress test is a good regulatory tool. It deals with some of the key questions that still linger about the exercise: do the benefits of the stress test outweigh the enormous cost? Is it tough enough on banks? And, does it tell us which banks are healthy or not?

Beyond the scope of the stress test, the book addresse...

In social care, mobilizing network support is a topical issue. Networks are at the heart of Family Group Conferencing, or Family Group Decision Making. FGC originated in New Zealand but has spread to many countries worldwide. In this book, FGC researchers with different methodological orientations discuss their findings and reflect candidly on the methodological choices they made and the challenges faced. The ‘what works’ versus ‘context’ controversy in social work research is highlig...