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The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life
by Todd HermanA top performance expert reveals the secret behind many top athletes and executives: creating a heroic alter ego to activate when the chips are down.There’s only one person in the way of you untapping your potential: You. There’s also one person who can move you out of the way so you can perform at your peak. That person is already inside you. You just need to unlock them. This other part of you is your Alter Ego. After twenty-one years of working with elite athletes, performers and leaders, Todd Herman has discovered how you can use your alter ego to achieve the seemingly impossible. It all clicked for Todd when he met Bo Jackson. When Herman met Bo Jackson, the professional athlete told him, “Bo Jackson never played a down of football in his entire life.” Bo explained that when he was young, he’d get into trouble because chaos caused by his anger issues. Then, he saw Friday the 13th and became fascinated by the cold, calculating nature of Jason Vorhees. In that moment, he resolved to stop being Bo Jackson, and start being Jason the moment he stepped on the field. In this transformative guide, Herman teaches you how to create and control an Alter Ego like Bo—and the thousands of other athletes, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and entertainers who have used this simple tool to change their lives. Herman also shares his own story: he knew that inside was a confident, self-assured, intelligent person who could help others get better results in their lives. When he started using superman’s classic trick—putting on a pair of glasses—he learned to trigger the specific traits he needed to achieve his goals.The Alter Ego Effect is not about creating a false mask—it’s about finding the hero already inside you. It’s a proven way of overcoming the self-doubt, negativity, and insecurity that hold you back, and empowering you to ultimately become your best self.
Altered Policy Landscapes: Fracking, Grazing, and the Bureau of Land Management
by Robert E. Forbis Jr.This book documents the United States Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) shift from a rancher-dominated agency to an energy-dominated agency. This shift is analyzed by identifying the conditions under which the expansion of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Rocky Mountain West triggered a political conflict between ranching and energy stakeholder groups. Through scrutiny of federal actions and policies implemented by the Executive Branch between 2004 and 2010, the book sheds light on the emphasis of domestic energy production during this time period, and how the traditional ranching and energy alliance was split by shifting policy interests. The book is meant for policy makers, natural resource agencies, and students and researchers engaged in political science, public administration, and natural resource management. Chapter 1 introduces readers to the case study at hand, and reviews literature on public land agencies and policies. Chapter 2 summarizes the legal history of public land management by the federal government, and the conditions that caused the BLM to favor energy development over ranching in the mid-2000's. Chapter 3 details the role of the Executive Branch (Bush-Cheney administration) in affecting the BLM's domestic energy policies and resource allocation, and chapter 4 analyzes the role of subgovernments in affecting the BLM's motivations too. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 contain first-hand accounts from government officials, state petroleum associations, and ranching supported interest groups to explore the concept of subgovernment stakeholder domination in policymaking, and analyze the similarities and differences between different policy-making elites. Chapter 8 concludes the text by summarizing subgovernment theory, mapping the behaviors of subgovernment actors, and discussing the implications for future political appointees in the direction of land-management agencies like the BLM.
Altering Frontiers: Organizational Innovations in Healthcare
by Corinne Grenier Ewan OiryHow can healthcare systems be transformed by reimagining their multiple silos to favor processes and practices that are more responsive to local, horizontal initiatives? Altering Frontiers analyzes numerous experiences, using a multidisciplinary approach, paying attention to certain actors, collectives and organizational arrangements.Through this work, levers are identified that promote lasting transformation: recognizing the legitimacy of the practices of many who are often "invisible"; trusting those who know their intervention territory; investing in methodological support; taking advantage of tools and procedures such as instruments for strategic and managerial discussion; and developing the capacity to absorb innovative ideas and experiences that circulate within the environment.
Altern und Versorgung im nachbarschaftlichen Netz eines Wohnquartiers: Zur Kooperation eines Altenhilfeträgers und einer Wohnbaugenossenschaft bei der quartiersbezogenen Gemeinwesenarbeit
by Sigrid KallfaßDiese Publikation beinhaltet die Ergebnisse des vom Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung geförderten Projekts ,,Altern und Versorgung im nachbarschaftlichen Netz einer Wohnbaugenossenschaft". Die umfassende Studie liefert wichtige Aspekte zur Förderung einer Generationenbeziehung im nachbarschaftlichen Kontext.
Alternativa
by Varios AutoresEnrique Santos Calderón selecciona los mejores artículos, reportajes, caricaturas, portadas, editoriales, columnas y entrevistas, de la revista que cambió la forma de hacer periodismo en Colombia La revista Alternativa fue fundada a comienzos de los años setenta por Gabriel García Márquez y Enrique Santos Calderón, entre otros. Con su aparición, se dio forma a un periodismo comprometido y militante que poco se conocía en Colombia. Este libro es un homenaje a la revista y con la selección y comentarios de Enrique Santos Calderón, quien fue su director, se presenta un intenso retrato del país que siguió al Frente Nacional, de los conflictos que asomaron en esa época y que heredamos en el presente. La publicación congregó a un grupo conformado por Orlando Fals Borda, Bernardo García, Antonio Caballero, Daniel Samper Pizano, Álvaro Tirado Mejía y varios más que influirían de manera significativa en la opinión pública colombiana. De tal suerte, la selección que aquí presentamos es la reunión de verdaderas joyas. A los textos del Nobel, muchos de ellos por primera vez reeditados en el país, se sumaron, por ejemplo, entrevistas exclusivas a Botero, Cortázar y Dalí; perfiles de León de Greiff, Capax y Ardila Lülle; la crónica del paro nacional de 1977 o las revelaciones del fiscal que llevó el caso del asesinato de Gaitán. Una Colombia extensa, profunda y diversa, que reclamaba cambios de fondo reaparece en estas páginas, como un espejo del momento actual.
The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy
by Nick RomeoWinners Take All meets Nickel and Dimed: a provocative debunking of accepted wisdom, providing the pathway to a sustainable, survivable economy. Confronted by the terrifying trends of the early twenty-first century – widening inequality, environmental destruction, and the immiseration of millions of workers around the world – many economists and business leaders still preach dogmas that lack evidence and create political catastrophe: Private markets are always more efficient than public ones; investment capital flows efficiently to necessary projects; massive inequality is the unavoidable side effect of economic growth; people are selfish and will only behave well with the right incentives. But a growing number of people – academic economists, business owners, policy entrepreneurs, and ordinary people – are rejecting these myths and reshaping economies around the world to reflect ethical and social values. Though they differ in approach, all share a vision of the economy as a place of moral action and accountability. Journalist Nick Romeo has spent years covering the world&’s most innovative economic and policy ideas for The New Yorker. Romeo takes us on an extraordinary journey through the unforgettable stories and successes of people working to build economies that are more equal, just, and livable. Combining original, in-depth reporting with expert analysis, Romeo explores: The successful business owners organizing their companies as purpose trusts (as Patagonia recently did) to fulfill a higher mission, such as sharing profits with workers or protecting the environment The growing deployment of new models by venture capital funds to promote wealth creation for the poorest Americans and address climate change. How Oslo&’s climate budgeting program is achieving the emission reduction targets the rest of the world continues to miss, creating a model that will soon be emulated by governments around the world How Portugal strengths democratic culture by letting citizens make crucial budget decisions The way worker ownership and cooperatives foster innovation, share wealth, and improve the quality of jobs, offering an increasingly popular model superior to the traditional corporation The public-sector marketplace that offers decent work and real protections to gig workers in California The job guarantee program in southern Austria that offers high-quality meaningful jobs to every citizen Many books have exposed what&’s not working in our current system. Romeo reveals something even more essential: the structure of a system that could actually work for everyone. Margaret Thatcher was wrong: there is an alternative. This is what it looks like.
The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy
by Nick RomeoMany books have exposed what's not working in our current system. Romeo reveals something even more essential: the structure of a system that could actually work for everyone.Margaret Thatcher was wrong: there is an alternative. This is what it looks like.Confronted by the terrifying trends of the early twenty-first century - widening inequality, environmental destruction, and the immiseration of millions of workers around the world - many economists and business leaders still preach dogmas that lack evidence and create political catastrophe: Private markets are always more efficient than public ones; investment capital flows efficiently to necessary projects; massive inequality is the unavoidable side effect of economic growth; people are selfish and will only behave well with the right incentives.But a growing number of people - academic economists, business owners, policy entrepreneurs, and ordinary people - are rejecting these myths and reshaping economies around the world to reflect ethical and social values. Though they differ in approach, all share a vision of the economy as a place of moral action and accountability. Journalist Nick Romeo has spent years covering the world's most innovative economic and policy ideas for the New Yorker. Romeo takes us on an extraordinary journey through the unforgettable stories and successes of people working to build economies that are more equal, just, and liveable.(P)2024 PublicAffairs
The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy
by Nick RomeoA provocative debunking of accepted economic wisdom which offers a new pathway to a sustainable, survivable economy.Confronted by the devastating trends of the early twenty-first century - widening inequality, environmental destruction, and millions of workers stuck in precarious, soul destroying work - many economists, politicians and business leaders argue that there is no alternative. They cling to the dogmas that got us in this mess in the first place: private markets are more efficient than public ones; investment capital always flows where it is needed; inequality is an inevitable side effect of economic growth; people only behave well with the right incentives. But a growing number of academic economists, business owners, policy entrepreneurs, and ordinary people are rejecting these myths and reshaping economies to reflect their ethical and social values. Journalist Nick Romeo, who covers the world's most innovative economic and policy ideas for the New Yorker, takes us on an extraordinary journey through the unforgettable stories and successes of people working to build economies that are more equal, just, and liveable. Combining original, in-depth reporting with expert analysis, Romeo explores everything from fair pricing in the Netherlands to large scale cooperatives in Spain to public sector marketplaces offering decent work and real protection to gig workers in California and demonstrates there is an alternative.
Alternative Acquisition Models and Financial Innovation: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies in Europe, and the Italian Legal Framework (Routledge International Studies in Money and Banking)
by Daniele D’Alvia Ettore Maria Lombardi Yochanan ShachmuroveThis is the first book written in English on special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) in the context of European and Italian financial law, introducing the topic with a general overview on the European stage. It is also the first book on European financial regulations of SPACs. As such, it is a groundbreaking reference text for SPAC studies at the international level. Alternative Acquisition Models and Financial Innovation: Special Purpose Acquisition Companies in Europe, and the Italian Legal Framework offers the most comprehensive overview of the current international financial regulations of SPACs in the EU and UK compared to the main legal system where SPACs originated—the US. This edited book is focused on finding a European legal framework for SPACs by discovering whether the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) or the Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive (UCITS) are applicable to them and why, as well as identifying the objectives of financial regulation of SPACs in the EU, US and UK. Essentially, the edited collection explores soft law and self-regulation instances against the state-based Westphalian approaches centred on hard law instances; describes practical examples of SPACs in Italy and Europe; and analyses the limits and perspectives of such investment vehicles on the Italian capital market as well as their possible uses as forms of shadow banking and venture companies at international levels.
Alternative Alternatives
by Sona BlessingIn the aftermath of the financial crisis, investors are searching for new opportunities and products to safeguard their investments for the future. Riding high on the wave of new financial opportunities are Alternative Alternatives (AA). However, there is a dearth of information on what Alternative Alternatives are, how they work, and how they can be profited from.The book defines what Alternative Alternatives are, based on research and the following hypothesis: If the source (origin) of the risk lies outside of the financial markets, then it should be insulated from the vagaries of those markets. The book identifies and examines such and other unique, idiosyncratic, and difficult to replicate sources of risk - assets and strategies. The recent credit and sovereign debt crisis have served to defend the hypothesis and have upheld the conclusion that alternative alternative assets and strategies offer a risk-return profile that is distinct to those offered by traditional and main stream hedge fund strategies. These strategies include timberland investing, insurance risk transfer, asset/loan based lending (aviation, shipping, trade, entertainment, litigation financing etc), collectables and extraction strategies such as volatility and behaviour finance.This book will be a one stop resource to the new investment class known globally as Alternative Alternatives (AA) and will provide a comprehensive but accessible introduction to these assets. It provides an in-depth analysis of the assets and strategies which will leave investors with everything they need to identify and allocate to the best AA for them. It reviews the asset on a standalone basis, providing an explanation of the product, its characteristics, a SWOT analysis, and details its risk/reward drivers. The book also looks at how to integrate the asset within a portfolio - its peculiarities, the challenges and the constraints of each. Next, the book shows how Alternative Alternatives are used in the real world, how they are implemented, and the results that they have achieved. Finally, the book looks at the scope, scalability and prospects for each asset in the future.
The Alternative Answer: The Nontraditional Investments That Drive the World's Best Performing Portfolios
by Bob RiceThe first book to explain the new world of alternative investing, showing how anyone can use nontraditional options to significantly increase returns and lower risksThe world's elite investors have long relied on alternative investments to produce superior returns. Until now, these strategies were the exclusive purview of institutions and the superwealthy, but today any informed investor can play the same game.A rainbow of investment options—timber, start-ups, master limited partnerships (MLPs), hedged strategies, managed futures, infrastructure, peer-to-peer lending, farmland, and dozens of other nontraditional strategies—can provide dramatically better gains, with less total risk, than the standard choices. In The Alternative Answer, Bob Rice, Bloomberg TV's Alternative Investments Editor, leads an entertaining and easy- to-understand tour of this world, and suggests specific alternative investments for all four key "jobs" of a portfolio: safely generating more current income, decreasing risks of economic shocks, significantly increasing long-term profits, and protecting purchasing power over time.Regardless of experience or net worth, readers will learn exactly how to substantially improve investment performance—in the same way that the world's best investors already do. Stocks and bonds alone aren't nearly enough. Investors need an alternative answer and now they have it.
Alternative Approaches in Macroeconomics: Essays in Honour of John McCombie
by Philip ArestisThis book honours Professor John McCombie’s retirement by exploring a variety of themes, theories and debates in non-orthodox macroeconomics. With contributions from leading scholars, the book covers diverse ground in economic thought, policy, empirical work and modelling. It demonstrates ongoing presumptions and asks probing questions of topical questions from the increase of income equality to the international variation of productivity investment. This collection will appeal to academics and students with an interest in the history of macroeconomic thinking.
Alternative Approaches to Economic Theory: Complexity, Post Keynesian and Ecological Economics (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy)
by Victor A. BekerThe 2007–2008 financial crisis exposed the shortcomings of mainstream economic theory with economists unprepared to deal with it. In the face of this, a major rethinking of economics seems necessary and in presenting alternative approaches to economic theory, this book contributes to the rebuilding of the discipline. This volume brings together contributions from different perspectives and theoretical approaches that address the challenge of updating the economic theory corpus and seek to recover prestige for this discipline after the failure of neoclassical economics. It addresses a range of topics, including the complexity approach to economics, category theory, the Post-Keynesian approach to micro and macroeconomics, financialisation, multidimensional analysis and ecological economics. The book is aimed at economics scholars, researchers, academics and practitioners, as well as upper undergraduates and graduates in this area of knowledge. It may also be of interest for people interested in methodological issues in economics and the relationship between economic theory and the real world.
Alternative Assets
by Guy Fraser-SampsonThe investment landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years, destroying many of the old certainties by which investors lived their lives. In particular, it has shaken belief in the ability of traditional asset types such as bonds and equities to protect them from abnormal market conditions, and it has brought home how closely correlation between different markets can be squeezed together by extreme pressure.Future investors will have to regard so-called "alternative" assets as essential elements within their portfolios, and be prepared to deal with the complexities that this will entail. This will in turn force a re-appraisal of core concepts such as "risk" and "return", not least because some alternative asset classes do not lend themselves well to traditional return measures. Exciting times lie ahead, but a thorough working knowledge of the various alternative asset classes will be an essential pre-requisite to success, and perhaps even to survival.Alternative Assets meets investor's need for a guide on where to allocate in this new climate. It provides investors with a primer on each alternative asset class, as well as practical tips on the pros and cons, implementation, returns analysis, fees and costs. It also offers introductory guidance on how to set investment targets, and how alternative assets can be accommodated within the allocation process. Each chapter gives useful background knowledge on a particular asset type, including a discussion of whether a satisfactory beta return level exists and, if so, the different ways in which it might be accessed.Written by best-selling author Guy Fraser-Sampson, this book guides investors through the new look alternative investment arena, providing post-financial crisis perspective and investment advice on the alternatives landscape.
Alternative Assets and Strategic Allocation: Rethinking the Institutional Approach (Bloomberg #134)
by John B. AbbinkAn insightful guide to making strategic investment allocation decisions that embraces both alternative and conventional assets In this much-needed resource, alternative and portfolio management expert John Abbink demonstrates new ways of analyzing and deploying alternative assets and explains the practical application of these techniques. Alternative Assets and Strategic Allocation clearly shows how alternative investments fit into portfolios and the role they play in an investment allocation that includes traditional investments as well. This book also describes innovative methods for valuation as applied to alternatives that previously have been difficult to analyze. Offers institutional investors, analysts, researchers, portfolio managers, and financial academics a down-to-earth method for measuring and analyzing alternative assets Reviews some of the latest alternatives that are increasing in popularity, such as high-frequency trading, direct lending, and long-term investment in real assets Outlines a strategic approach for including alternative investments into portfolios and shows the pivotal role they play in an investment allocation Using the information found in this book, you'll have a clearer sense of how to approach investment issues related to alternative assets and discover what it takes to make these products work for you.
Alternative Banking and Financial Crisis (Banking, Money and International Finance #1)
by Olivier Butzbach Kurt Von MettenheimThe recent banking crisis has brought into question the business model used by most large banks. This collection of essays explores the success of ‘alternative banks’ – savings banks, cooperative banks and development banks, using case studies from around the world and discussion of both the historical and theoretical context of banking practices.
Alternative Business: Outlaws, Crime and Culture (Routledge Companions In Business, Management And Accounting Ser.)
by Martin ParkerFrom Robin Hood to Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, outlaws have been a central part of 800 years of culture. These are characters who criticise the power of those in the castle or the skyscraper, and earn their keep by breaking the law. Outlaws break categories too. They are fact and fiction, opposition and product, culture and economy, natural justice and organized crime. Beginning with Robin Hood stealing from the rich, and covering along the way pirates, smugglers, highwaymen, the Wild West, the Mafia and many others, Martin Parker offers a fresh and exciting insight into the counter culture of the outlaw – one that rebels against the more dominant and traditional forms of economy and organization and celebrates a life free from wage slavery. Alternative Business is a highly readable, entertaining book that will prove a helpful study tool for all students and lecturers working on organizations, cultural studies and criminology.
Alternative Currency Movements as a Challenge to Globalisation?: A Case Study of Manchester's Local Currency Networks (Ashgate Economic Geography Ser.)
by Peter NorthOver the past 15 years, local money networks, which are essentially trading networks using a community-created currency, have emerged in countries as far apart as Argentina, Australia and New Zealand, Canada and the US, continental Europe and Japan. They range from Local Exchange Trading Schemes (UK), to Time Dollars (US), Green Dollars (New Zealand, Australia and Canada), Trading Circles (Hungary), Barter Networks (Argentina) and Talents (Germany). Drawing on an ethnographic case study of alternative currency movements in Manchester, UK, this book provides an analysis of the motivations, aims, successes and failures of alternative currency networks. It also raises questions such as the contribution of the alternative currency movement to current debates about alternatives to neoliberalism. While it is theoretically informed, critical and grounded in fieldwork, it is also sympathetic to the political aims of the protagonists and cognisant of the non-economic benefits that arise from their development.
Alternative Data and Artificial Intelligence Techniques: Applications in Investment and Risk Management (Palgrave Studies in Risk and Insurance)
by Qingquan Tony Zhang Beibei Li Danxia XieThis book introduces a state-of-art approach in evaluating portfolio management and risk based on artificial intelligence and alternative data. The book covers a textual analysis of news and social media, information extraction from GPS and IoTs data, and risk predictions based on small transaction data, etc. The book summarizes and introduces the advancement in each area and highlights the machine learning and deep learning techniques utilized to achieve the goals. As a complement, it also illustrates examples on how to leverage the python package to visualize and analyze the alternative datasets, and will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students of risk evaluation, risk management, data, AI, and financial innovation.
An Alternative Development Agenda for India
by Sanjay KaulThis book provides a revamped, transformative, and fiscally sustainable developmental agenda for India to radically improve the well-being and livelihoods of its citizens. Grounded in a ‘people first’ approach, this alternative agenda focuses on seven vital development and inter-connected areas, including health, education, food and nutrition, child development, gender, livelihood and jobs, and urbanization. The volume highlights the systemic issues plaguing these sectors and offers pragmatic and implementable solutions to address them. The author takes cognizance of the COVID-19 pandemic and draws attention to the limitations of the current public policies and suggests cost-effective interventions and strategies that focus on the poor. The volume discusses crucial themes of universalizing healthcare, battling malnutrition and food insecurity, ensuring quality schooling, unshackling gendered mindsets, enhancing livelihoods and improving the urban quality of life to spell out a pragmatic and workable development agenda for India. Accessible and reader-friendly, the book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of development studies, economics, public policy, governance, development policy, public administration, political studies, South Asia studies. It will also be of interest to professionals in the development sector.
Alternative Dispute Resolution of Shareholder Disputes in Hong Kong: Institutionalizing Its Effective Use
by Mak Ida Kwan LunThe landscape of shareholder dispute resolution in Hong Kong has changed vastly since the launch of the Civil Justice Reform in 2009. Key initiatives - the voluntary court-connected scheme and reform of the statutory unfair prejudice provisions - were employed to promote the greater use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in shareholder disputes. While the Hong Kong government and judiciary introduced such schemes to prove the legitimacy of extra-judicial over court-based litigation processes, their success is still uncertain. In this book, socio-legal theory and sociological institutionalism are used to develop a theoretical framework for analyzing the key stages of institutionalization. The author analyzes how procedural innovations could acquire legitimacy through different types of legal and non-legal inducement mechanisms within the institutionalization process. Recommendations on codifying and innovating ADR policy in Hong Kong shareholder disputes made with comparison to similar policies in the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand.
Alternative Economic Indicators (Routledge Revivals)
by Victor AndersonThe main objective of politicians is to maximise economic growth, which heavily drives political policy and decision-making. Critics of the maximisation of growth as the central aim of economic policy have argued that growth in itself is not necessarily a good thing, particularly for the environment; however, what would replace the system and how it would be measured are questions that have been rarely answered satisfactorily. First published in 1991, this book was the first to lay out an entirely new set of practical proposals for developing new economic measurement tools, with the aim of being sustainable, ‘green’ and human-centred. Victor Anderson proposes that a whole set of indicators, rather than a single one, should play all the roles that GNP (Gross National Product) is responsible for. With a detailed overview of the central debates between the advocates and opponents of continued economic growth and an analysis of the various proposals for modification, this title will be of particular value to students interested in the diversity of measurement tools and the notion that economies should also be evaluated by their social and environmental consequences.
Alternative Envelope Components for Energy-Efficient Buildings (Green Energy and Technology)
by Ana-Maria DabijaThis book examines ways of saving energy by using green roofs and facades, solar devices such as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), and thermal solar panels, as components of energy-efficient building envelopes. The author takes an interdisciplinary / multidisciplinary approach to the subject that analyzes several different scientific fields connected to building research—sustainability, sustainable architecture, energy efficiency in buildings, and building envelopes—while approaching other collateral domains, including history, archaeology, botanics, physics, engineering, and landscape architecture. Alternative Envelope Components for Energy-Efficient Buildings will be a welcome resource for researchers, students, and postgraduates in the fields of energy, building materials, and renewable energy, as well as architects, engineers, and specialists in industries related to building products.Looks at the impact of building envelopes on energy usage;Offers readers an introduction to the principles of sustainability;Presents passive and active approaches to using solar devices.
An Alternative Explanation for the Resource Curse: The Income Effect Channel
by Ali Alichi Rabah ArezkiA report from the International Monetary Fund.
Alternative Food Networks: An Interdisciplinary Assessment
by Alessandro Corsi Filippo Barbera Egidio Dansero Cristiana PeanoIn recent years, Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) have been a key issue both in the scientific community and in public debates. This is due to their profound implications for rural development, local sustainability, and bio-economics. This edited collection discusses what the main determinants of the participation of operators – both consumers and producers – in AFNs are, what the conditions for their sustainability are, what their social and environmental effects are, and how they are distributed geographically. Further discussions include the effect of AFNs in structuring the food chain and how AFNs can be successfully scaled up.The authors explicitly take an interdisciplinary approach to analyse AFNs from different perspectives, using as an example the Italian region of Piedmont, a particularly interesting case study due to the diffusion of AFNs in the area, as well as due to the fact that it was in this region that the ‘Slow Food’ movement originated.