In “Divine and Human Plans of God in the Book of Isaiah,” J. Todd Hibbard follows the occurrences of a Hebrew root that means “to plan, advise, counsel” through the whole book, bringing to light one of its central themes. He shows how Isaiah’s theological rhetoric begins with a plan against Judah that involves foreign nations, but eventually undermines the plans of those nations as well. As with feminine imagery in the book, it is possible to identify a kind of episodic narrative running through the book in relation to certain themes in a way that animates the development of the book and holds it together despite its lengthy formation. The divine plans for Judah and nations eventually come together and culminate with the summoning of Cyrus as messiah and the appearance of the Persian empire.

This chapter deals with public health and pandemic preparedness. It recognises the five stages of a new pandemic (detection, assessment, treatment, escalation and recovery). The chapter also deals with the issue of laboratory preparedness and the need to maintain a critical mass of laboratory and skilled staff expertise at all times in order to be able to respond rapidly and effectively to a new emerging pandemic.

This chapter examines suitable statistics questions for investigation by children of different ages, using a cycle of problem, plan, data, analysis and conclusion (PPDAC) (Wild & Pfannkuch 1999). The importance of variation in data and different types of variables and the difference between a population and a sample are investigated. Readers will explore different ways of displaying data to ‘tell a story’. The importance of drawing inferences from data and the uncertainty associated with these inferences are discussed. Readers will engage in activities that use technology to support the development of statistical understanding.

In this chapter, your thinking around leading partnerships will be challenged. Throughout this chapter, you will be supported to develop a critical understanding of how leadership can impact partnerships, both positively and negatively.In the chapters so far, you have explored conceptual and practical components of partnerships and the key aspects that lead to successful partnership work.We have explored how diversity can challenge us as well as enrich our understanding of family and ways of being. We have also delved deeply into developing approaches, actions, strategies and tools to implement effective partnerships whereby we can measure their success.Of critical importance is how we lead all these processes.The aim of this chapter is for you to identify when leadership approaches need to change in response to the positioning of partnership work and ensure a way forward for all parties.

In this chapter, we discuss and illustrate the tools of evaluating partnership work as part of a continuous improvement that you will need to make when building partnerships. As you engage with the chapter, you will learn what evaluation is and how to use evaluation to ensure that partnerships work for the benefit of children and their families. Throughout the chapter, we will explore different methods for collecting data and analysis, including various strategies that will inform the improvement and change necessary for good work in partnership-building.

Chapter 3 explores the humanitarian work of the Australian communist Esme Odgers during the Spanish Civil War. Odgers’s story highlights the child sponsorship programme as a humanitarian technique through PLAN, which has yet to be fully discussed within the history of Spanish humanitarian aid. Odgers’s detailed letters written during the war offer unique insights into the material, social and psychological conditions under which humanitarian workers laboured, suggesting that humanitarian work was a multifaceted and unpredictable experience. An examination of this dimension allows for an exploration of emotions that humanitarian workers are expected to repress, and where the expression of individual emotions in the context of life and death is perceived as an indulgence. Further, a study of Odgers’s humanitarian efforts during the Spanish Civil War sheds light on the impact of these endeavours beyond Europe, extending our understanding of the global impact of the war. Odgers’s letters also reveal the trauma associated with dealing with the evacuation of children and reflects the psychological consequences of humanitarian work.

Chapter 10 explores the work of Foster Parents Plan (PLAN), whose presence in the Asian region began in the 1950s, extending its scope beyond Europe from where it originated during the Spanish Civil War. PLAN was distinct from other humanitarian programmes in that it developed a child sponsorship scheme. The language of development, financial assistance to so-called Third World nations and humanitarian aid invariably reflected earlier practices of colonialism, such as sending administrators to colonies and developing narratives of Western superiority. PLAN at this time shows a hybrid form of humanitarianism in which the organisation never entirely relinquished its charity label. The human rights campaigns that marked this period were absent from PLAN’s firmly embedded form of humanitarianism, which retained elements of colonial paternalism as well as newly formed concepts of social justice, underpinned by moralism. Max Harris, Australian writer, poet and journalist, took an active and leading role in promoting the aims of PLAN in the region. He did so with great zest and enthusiasm. A study of the correspondence with the children that Harris sponsored, which aimed to capture the voices of children, reveals these voices were severely compromised and appropriated to serve the fundraising endeavours of PLAN itself. These attempts reflected Western constructs that aimed to elevate PLAN donors and sponsors to the status of saviours of ‘Third World’ countries and communities and satisfy their gaze.

This chapter defines the basic principles of planning within a context of management science. It describes how plans are used for managing modern operations.

This book is a history of Chinese cities from their origins to the present. Despite being an agricultural society for thousands of years, China had a dynamic imperial urban civilization. This consisted of a complex empire-wide urban system linking cities, towns, and villages. Although there was variation across the empire, there was a recognizable Chinese urban form, especially in imperial capitals. At the same time, cities were managed by a mixture of Chinese officials and organizations such as migrant associations. Finally, a vibrant urban culture developed that distinguished cities from the countryside that surrounded them. Then, over the past century, because of a number of historical forces, including industrialization and the emergence of governments committed to urbanization, this urban civilization was transformed into the world’s largest modern urban society. Indeed now, with some of the largest cities and most densely populated and networked cities in the world, China is shaping what it means to be a modern urban society. Like those throughout China’s history, these cities are connected to others around the world, and by highlighting these links, this book writes China into the history of how the world has become a modern urban society.