Best Selling Books by Andrew Davies

A practical and informative guide to the processes relating to buying and selling residential property in Britain and France, this book, aimed at the general public, is also a useful resource for both the student of law and the property professional. With information on looking for a property, dealing with intermediaries, solicitors and agents, buying over the internet, arranging a mortgage, and the laws concerning buying, selling and building in Scotland, Britain and France, this is the perfect guide for anyone who wants to learn more about buying homes both at home and abroad.

A collection of Sydney images from its founding to today with a unique and rare collection of original 3D photos including the building of Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House as well as lost buildings that do not exist today and major icons of the harbour city. It also includes Federation celebrations from 1901 photos which are all presented in this unique book in 3D

This systematic literature review explores the megaproject management literature and contributes by improving our understanding of the causes and cures of poor megaproject performance. The review analyzes 6,007 titles and abstracts and 86 full papers, identifying a total of 18 causes and 54 cures to address poor megaproject performance. We suggest five avenues for future research that should consider examining megaprojects as large- scale, inter- organizational production systems: (1) designing the system architecture; (2) bridging the gap with manufacturing; (3) building and leading collaborations; (4) engaging institutions and communities; and (5) decomposing and integrating the supply chain.

The adventures of a very naughty little girl and her similarly behaved, talking donkey.

The delivery of large-scale technical systems is achieved through project organizing. The concept of systems integration, with its distinct focus on the systems that projects deliver, is theoretically important as projects become more complex and face significant uncertainty. We reframe systems integration in interorganizational projects as a flexible and adaptive process of making constituent parts of systems work together. This process involves boundary-spanning structures and activities to address emergent complexity and uncertainty (that are both technological and organizational in nature). We discuss implications and highlight areas for further research on projects.

Key Skill Outcomes in Science has been written for students to consolidate essential science skills. The text guides the reader towards appropriate outcomes in: using tables; observing and hypothesising; problem solving; analysing and designing inferring, predicting and concluding. The material is sequenced according to the level of difficulty. Basic processes, in which many of the fundamental skills of science are found, are presented first. More difficult processes are presented later. Chapter contain a range of skills-based assignments which cover a variety of subject matter.

Earlier this year China released a new defence White Paper. Like its predecessor two years ago, the paper leaves much unsaid - especially about China''s maritime aspirations beyond its immediate waters. In contrast, the equivalent American document sets out a consistent picture of American aspirations, strategy and capability. By comparing the Chinese military budget with those of the US and its allies, it is clear that China is unlikely to be a peer competitor on the wider stage any time soon.

Abstract: The article is a discussion of the aspects of children''s accounts of Welshness that are either racialized or inclusive. The empirical basis is a qualitative research project on children''s national and local identities in Wales, conducted with 8-11 year olds in six primary schools across the country, with schools selected to provide diversity of region, language, social class and ethnicity. This article focuses on the aspects of the children''s talk that highlight ''race'' and the position of minority ethnic children within Wales. There is discussion of Welshness as racialized, children''s views on being white and on being a minority, and evidence of inclusivity amongst children. We found aspects of the children''s talk that pose a barrier to the development of an inclusive Welsh citizenship and also aspects that support it. There is consideration of children''s agency in the construction of nationhood and the limited repertoires they can draw on for this process

Whereas existing approaches and empirical studies of dynamic capabilities focus on the strategic innovation activities of firms (i.e., permanent organizations executing multiple projects and programs), this article identifies how certain types of dynamic capabilities are required to deliver large, complex, and risky projects involving multiple parties. Our longitudinal study of the design and construction of Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 by the British Airports Authority (BAA ) makes three main contributions to the literature: (1) It contributes to the project management literature by identifying how specific dynamic capabilities (BAA''s "T5 Agreement," strategic behaviors, and collaborative processes) are developed through a three-phase process (learning, codifying, and mobilizing) to support the strategic management of complex projects. (2) While emphasizing their importance for the successful management of complex projects, our findings also underline the continuing fragility of dynamic capabilities. (3) The case study reveals their fluidity and balancing role with respect to demands for stability and change in complex, uncertain, and volatile project environments.

Australia''s long-held plans for the future air combat capability in the form of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are under pressure from rising costs and slipping schedules. This paper assesses the current situation and concludes that there is still scope for a successful transition later this decade, but that margins are getting tight. Cost pressures are strongest for the first batch of fourteen aircraft due to arrive from 2014, and must be close to maxing out the approved funding amount. Schedule pressures are more acute later in the decade and what was a comfortable four year buffer between US and Australian service introduction is now closer to one. Fall-back options are to extend the life of the Hornets (again) or buy Super Hornets (again).

As knowledge production becomes more specialized, studying complex and multi-faceted empirical realities becomes more difficult. This has created a growing need for cross-fertilization and collaboration between research disciplines. According to prior studies, the sharing of concepts, ideas and empirical domains with other disciplines may promote cross-fertilization. We challenge this one-sided view. Based on an analysis of the parallel development of the neighboring disciplines of innovation studies and project management, we show that the sharing of concepts and empirical domains can have ambivalent effects. Under conditions of ideological distancing, shared concepts and domains will be narrowly assimilated - an effect we call ''encapsulation'' - which creates an illusion of sharing, while promoting further self-containment. By comparison, reflexive meta-theories and cross-disciplinary community-building will enable a form of sharing that promotes cross-fertilization. Our findings inform research on research specialization, cross-fertilization and effectiveness of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Pockets of project innovation, such as the novel solution used to redesign the Velodrome roof during the London 2012 Olympics, have been few. However, there have been few, if any, systematic efforts to manage innovation in a megaproject. This paper presents the initial findings of an ongoing three-year action research project between Crossrail and researchers at Imperial College London and University College London. Action research is well suited to a setting where an intervention is required to diagnose and solve an organizational problem and produce scientific findings (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Van de Ven, 2007). Our engagement with Crossrail aimed to formulate and implement a four-staged innovation strategy to improve the performance and outcomes of the project. Our intervention addressed the final two stages, what we call the engaging window and the leveraging window, when we assisted in the development and implementation of an innovation strategy. Central to this strategy was a coordinated mobilization of the innovative capabilities across the project supply chain. Though, to be successful, this approach had to be open enough to span organizational boundaries beyond the supply chain, reaching into the broader ecosystem. The four windows provide a valuable new heuristic for organizing innovation in megaprojects, pointing to areas where project managers can craft targeted innovation interventions and compare their efforts with those of others.