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This paper presents an inquiry into the state of conversations in international politics on the prospects for the global environmental governance of climate change. The essay reviews the literature on regime theory and its discontents to provide a working understanding of the authors' conception of global environmental governance for climate change as a regime. The most recent cases of global environmental governance on climate change are discussed, focusing on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as the primary arena for governance-building discussions, leading up to the 2009 Copenhagen Summit. The paper then considers the conversations that posit the failures of Copenhagen and question a current existential crisis facing global environmental governance on climate change. Finally, it is suggested that these failures of the Copenhagen round can be understood within the context of regime theory and its limitations in International Relations. The experience of Copenhagen is representative of continuity with both regime theory and the recent history of global environmental governance on climate change. While the Copenhagen Accord may represent a failure as an international institution on climate change it is perhaps not a failure if interpreted more broadly as part of a governing global climate change regime.

This article examines the states of Canada-ASEAN relations and the key issues, which follow this relationship. The authors present the historical background behind the emergence of ASEAN during the Vietnam War, and describe Canadian interaction from this period to 1980s. However, even the last decade in the 1990s, Canada's relations with the ASEAN region have failed to regain any focus, underscoring the lack of a consistent and sustained policy in what is an increasingly crucial area. The article then discusses the issues and strategies for ensuring better relations concerning the changing global political, economic, and social environments well into the future. The authors study each current issue, also examining those affecting Burma (Myanmar), humanitarian intervention, and non-interference; considering the acceptance and signing the ASEAN treaty of amity and cooperation initiated in 1976; and utilizing the ASEAN organization as an entry point to establish better relations with the nations of east Asia. The authors conclude that Canadian-ASEAN relations at a crossroads, tying in points from within to reconsider several of the key issues at hand, to develop strategies for sustained engagement, and recalibrate policies to ensure fruitful and productive footing. Adapted from the source document.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence In this enlightening study of modern working lives in Britain, leading experts on the sociology of work draw on detailed statistical analyses to assess job quality and job satisfaction. Drawing on decades of research data on hundreds of occupational groups, the authors challenge conventional notions of 'good work' and consider them afresh through the lens of workers themselves. With examples from many professions, the book examines why some occupations feel more rewarding than others, regardless of factors like pay and security. Exploring fresh policies to promote the agenda for fulfilling employment, it builds an important case for genuine and sustained satisfaction in working lives

The job demands–control/support (JDC/JDCS) models are highly influential in the HRM and employee well-being literature. Despite the high face validity, however, research has failed to find convincing empirical support for the 'buffer' hypothesis suggested by the JDC/JDCS models. In this article the authors explore this issue from three perspectives. First, they test the controversial 'buffer' hypothesis using a large nationally representative matched employer–employee sample from Britain. Second, they examine the role of teamwork HRM practices as a moderator of the buffering effect of job control against job demands on employee well-being. Finally, incorporating occupational level data into the analysis, the authors further explore the moderating effects of teamwork under different occupation-specific work intensity. The analysis suggests that there is strong evidence supporting the 'buffering' hypothesis. Also, it was found that teamwork moderates the buffering effect for employee intrinsic job satisfaction. Finally, the moderating effect of teamwork differs between occupations with different levels of work intensity.

The fabric of a city represents a transformation of raw geological materials into a complex assemblage of new, human-made minerals and rocks such as steel, glass, plastics, concrete, brick, and ceramics. This activity has been considered in terms of an "urban metabolism," with day-to-day inflows and outflows of people, food, water, and waste materials. Here we adopt a longer time-scale spanning years to millennia, related to geological time-scales but still meaningful for present and future generations of humans, and consider cities as sedimentary systems. In natural sedimentary systems, flows of materials are governed by natural forces such as climate and gravity, and leave physical records in, for instance, river-strata. In cities, the flows of geological materials needed for construction and reconstruction are directed by humans, and are largely powered by the fossil energy stored in hydrocarbons rather than by gravity or the sun. The resultant assemblages of anthropogenic rocks and minerals may be thought of as sedimentary (and/or trace-fossil) systems that can undergo fossilization and now exist on a planetary scale. Far more diverse than natural geological strata, they are also evolving much more rapidly, not least in terms of their growing waste products. Considering cities through such a perspective may become increasingly useful as they come to be influenced by, and need to adapt to, the changing conditions of the emerging Anthropocene epoch.