Envisioning what we need, when it doesn’t yet exist: this, Thomas Fisher tells us, is what design does. And if what we need now is a better world—functioning schools, working infrastructure, thriving cities—why not design one? Fisher shows how the principles of design apply to services and systems that seem to evolve naturally, systems whose failures sometimes seem as arbitrary and inevitable as the weather. But the “invisible” systems we depend on for our daily lives (in education, politics, economics, and public health) are designed every bit as much as the products we buy and the environments we inhabit—and are just as susceptible to creative reimagining.Designing Our Way to a Better World challenges the assumptions that have led to so much poor performance in the public and private realms: that our schools cannot teach creativity, that our governments cannot predict the disasters that befall us, that our health system will protect us from pandemics, that our politics will remain polarized, that our economy cannot avoid inequality, and that our industry cannot help but pollute the environment. Targeting these assumptions, Fisher's approach reveals the power of design to synthesize our knowledge about the world into greater wholes. In doing so, this book opens up possible futures—and better futures—than the unsustainable and inequitable one we now face.

Product Description: Each of us has but one life to live on this earth. What we do with it is our choice. Are we drifting through it as spectators, reacting to our circumstances when necessary and wondering just how we got to this point anyway? Or are we directing it, maximizing the joy and potential of every day, living with a purpose or mission in mind?Too many of us are doing the former--and our lives are slipping away one day at a time...read more

Product Description: Women’s Health Issues Across the Life Cycle: A Quality of Life Perspective is a unique text that explores a wide-variety of health issues and concerns for women to offer a holistic approach to care. Presented within a quality of life framework, it provides a women-centered perspective to explore the range of factors that can impact women’s health and well-being throughout the major life stages...read more

Product Description: This collection of original essays, from both established scholars and newcomers, takes up a debate that has recently flared up in philosophy, sociology, and disability studies on whether disability is intrinsically a harm that lowers a person's quality of life...read more

Product Description: What do national dementia strategies, constantly evolving policy and ongoing funding difficulties mean for people living well with dementia? Adopting a broad and inclusive approach, Shibley Rahman presents a thorough critical analysis of existing dementia policy, and tackles head-on current and controversial topics at the forefront of public and political debate, such as diagnosis in primary care, access to services for marginalised groups, stigma and discrimination, integrated care, personal health budgets, personalised medicine and the use of GPS tracking...read more

Product Description: Between Now and When relates a transcendent journey from earthly suffering and addiction into the rarely glimpsed supra-reality of higher dimensions.The author first experienced the oneness of existence at age seven. As a teen, he heard a mystical voice that foretold his death at age 33, a prophecy that left him on death's doorstep at exactly that age...read more

Product Description: In the last few decades, urban quality of life has received increasing interest from policy makers who aim to make cities better places to live. In addition to the aim of improving quality of life, sustainable and equitable development is also often included in the policy agendas of decision makers...read more

Product Description: Quality, as exemplified by Quality-of-life (QoL) assessment, is frequently discussed among health care professionals and often invoked as a goal for improvement, but somehow rarely defined, even as it is regularly assessed. It is understood that some medical patients have a better QoL than others, but should the QoL achieved be compared to an ideal state, or is it too personal and subjective to gauge? Can a better understanding of the concept help health care systems deliver services more effectively? Is QoL worth measuring at all? Integrating concepts from psychology, philosophy, neurocognition, and linguistics, this book  attempts to answer these complex questions...read more

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Product Description: In The Untrue Story of You, Bryan Hubbard presents a powerful, groundbreaking theory explaining who we really are, how our relationship to our past affects us and how we can finally find true healing.   In the pages of this book, you will discover that ‘you’ are actually made up of Three Selves, or time-bodies – past, present and potential – and that these three distinct entities send out energetic pulses, or waves, that interact to create your experience of life...read more

Product Description: A modern definition of health goes beyond the biological dimension to encompass human functionality and well-being. Quality of life is one of the most popular health-related concepts and simultaneously reflects several dimensions of individual health...read more