Emerald Publishing Limited

Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) has become the noun, verb, and adjective of the modern business era. Faced with societal and regulatory pressure, big business in America, Asia, and Europe has been forced to define and articulate ESG goals to combat climate change and save the planet. The only problem is that ESG has been captured by the PR hype machine as a few prominent business leaders make bold promises to save the planet but are vague about how they propose to achieve this. Eager to showcase their green credentials, companies are making all kinds of promises to reduce their carbon footprint and to play their part in reducing global warming and improving social outcomes. How to separate fact from fiction and exaggerated commitments from realistic goals?

Vasuki Shastry spent several years at the coal face itself – running ESG for a major international bank in the City of London – and argues that corporate cultures are too focused on the profit motive and quarterly business targets. Change can only really come through a paradigm shift for business which aligns business with social purpose. Getting there will require a corporate revolution which will disrupt and dislodge the ancien régime and usher in a new age of sustainable business. The author offers a solution in the form of a Climate Manifesto for Business that will Make Our Planet Great Again!

David R. Maines (1940-2021), one of the most important sociological scholars of the 20th and 21st centuries, constructed a vast area of research to advance the field of symbolic interactionism during his career. Highlighting the significance of Maines’ works in symbolic interactionism, Festschrift in Honor of David R. Maines documents his most celebrated areas of scholarship, including social structure, narrative sociology, social interaction, dialectic perspective, temporality, and mesostructure.

Including stories from individuals who knew Maines via kinship, friendship, or professional relationship, the chapters conclude with two new empirical studies to reflect Maines’ interest in continually advancing the field with cutting-edge research. The collection also features a list of Maines’ selected works for further reading to guide other symbolic interactionists in their research endeavors.

Volume 57 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction is a source of both consolation and celebration for those who knew David R. Maines, as well as those who have just begun to discover his inspiring work.

Winning through Platforms achieved #1 bestseller status, and is a Best Business Book Awards winner for 2024. It is your new go-to guide for modern competitive advantage.

Digital platforms are no longer for just the tech elite. They’re spreading to every company and industry, powered by the growth of customer sensors, streaming data, and artificial intelligence—lighting the valuable customer Use journey that was formerly dark.

How will you succeed when your markets get platform-crowded? Three senior advisers to the world’s leading technology companies reveal how to win through platforms when every competitor has one.

Winning Through Platforms decodes growth moves from a decade of platform competition, communicates them through a platform playbook. It’s a treasure trove of 24 proven platform strategies—such as customer coalition design, in-use enrichment, AI branding, and much more. These playbook strategies are delivered through engaging stories of over 50 companies, plus proprietary frameworks and workshop-style questions that lead you to act.

This game-changing playbook will teach you how to:

• Revitalize your business through strategic use of platforms
• Design platforms that are compelling to customers and hard for competitors to match
• Accelerate in-market growth through brand-and-demand excellence that spans your customer’s entire platform journey
• Innovate in high-impact benefit areas to differentiate your platform
• Elevate your customer’s personal platform experience
• Transform your enterprise and operations to drive superior performance

Every CEO, innovator, go-to-market leader, and aspiring professional will gain valuable insight through this book. Whether your company is just starting on its first platform journey or is a born platform disruptor, this book will transform your ability to win.

Learn the platform playbook. Find and apply your plays.

This book forms part of the American Marketing Association (AMA) leadership series.

Humans are fundamentally social beings who crave belonging, mission, and meaning, especially at work. Drawing on the increasing prevalence of remote work in the post-pandemic era, this book asks how organizations can overcome workplace loneliness and create a sense of belonging.

Prioritizing the need to create authentic workplaces to promote inclusion and empower employees to feel comfortable being themselves, chapters present strategies for addressing workplace loneliness based on interviews with remote employees and an examination of successful organizational practices. How, contributors ask, have remote employees experienced workplace loneliness in their organization? What is the role of belonging in tackling this? How can leaders and HR practitioners foster this belonging among remote employees? How does social identity affect employees’ abilities to connect within their organization?

Rooted in real-world research and insights, Overcoming Workplace Loneliness envisions a world of work where all employees feel valued for their authentic selves and are able to experience the encouragement and comradery of office connection from the comfort of their homes. This pioneering book not only sheds light on workplace loneliness of remote employees, but also provides an in-depth literature review of workplace loneliness to inspire future research.

Acting as a follow up to Volume 41 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction (2013), Symbolic Interaction and Inequality explores further the concept of Radical Interactionism, a perspective of researching domination and subordination introduced by scholar Lonnie Athens.

Demonstrating advancements made in Radical Interactionism over the past decade, chapters examine the omnipresent and insidious nature of inequality as well as its social construction among family members, cisgender and gender-diverse people, as well as university students and personnel, particularly college athletes.

Highlighting fruitful accomplishments achieved by a range of symbolic interactionists, this volume exhibits the significance of studying inequality, a venture that not only enriches symbolic interactionism but human life as a whole.

As the record number of forcibly-displaced persons in the world continues to rise, more people of differing origins are sharing space and learning to live together. Prolonged displacement has turned into permanent resettlement and citizenship. To reflect this geopolitical transformation, education too must transform. Beyond Refuge explores abstractions, practicalities, impediments, and assets proffered by research participants to illustrate what an educational transformation should and could look like via a theoretical framework for emancipatory education of forcibly-displaced youth.

Interviews, focus groups, and participant observations gather data from participants across local, state, national, and international levels of educational influence, resulting in a collection of diverse perspectives. The results of Swisher’s study are presented in narratives and discussions upon which educational leaders can build. An emancipatory education of forcibly-displaced youth must begin with an examination of ourselves, our systems, and our societies and be sustained by leadership, policies, and practices based in love, empathy, listening, learning, and community.

A central text for the next steps in inclusive and equitable education, Beyond Refuge appeals to researchers, teachers, leaders, community figures and participants, and policymakers wanting to create lasting and impactful change in their local and national societies.

Over the course of more than 70 years, students of symbolic interactionism have demonstrated how a resourceful and conceptually rich perspective can generate variegated lines of research. However, many have expressed concerns over the sheer wealth and quantity of "lines of research" and the promotion of a "chaos" that lacks a cohesive focus on the fundamental issues, processes, and concepts that define the essence of symbolic interactionism.

Answering David Maines’ call for a forum to define and describe different lines of research, Volume 59 of Studies in Symbolic Interaction allows symbolic interactionists to demonstrate how and why their respective lines of research contribute to the quality and substance of symbolic interactionism. Examining key issues across their respective specializations, authors analyze their importance, historical development, and relevance to this field.

Seeking a concise and substantial vision of symbolic interactionism, Essential Issues in Symbolic Interaction manifests the crucial research endeavors and key elements that contribute to the vitality of the interactionist theoretical framework.

Sustainable development aspires to reduce current societal challenges by creating wealth for everyone within the limit of the planet productive capacity, in this way, ensuring that future generations can meet their own needs. This is largely because sustainable development refers to the “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Activists, corporations, non-governmental organizations, entrepreneurs and politicians must all be involved in achieving sustainable development.

Academics and policymakers have also recognized the potential of entrepreneurs for tackling current societal challenges with their businesses because entrepreneurs are able to fill the voids left by the other individuals and organizations. However, who are these entrepreneurs? How can they provide solutions and tackle current societal challenges with their business?

Exploring the transformative powers of sustainable entrepreneurs, How Entrepreneurs are Driving Sustainable Development also demonstrates how family, women and immigrant entrepreneurs can tackle current societal challenges, break inequalities and bring about change.

Business fluency is essential today for effective strategic communication. To fulfill the mandate of trusted counselors and advisors to executives and the C-suite, communication professionals must no longer just have excellent communication skills, but they must understand and speak the language of the business world. The challenge is that many communication graduates and professionals did not go to business school and do not hold an MBA.

Business Acumen for Strategic Communicators: The Workbook provides the essential practical learning needed to help upskill communication professionals into bona fide business leaders and advisors. Through briefs, exercises and discussion activities, readers will learn to analyze and interpret key business materials produced by companies and nonprofit organizations, including CEO letters, annual reports, financial statements, earnings releases, CSR, DEI and ESG reports, and more. A revised and expanded glossary is provided, as are answer keys for the exercises.

Drawing on the success of Ragas and Culp’s prior books, this innovative workbook offers hands-on learning opportunities to help put newly acquired business acumen knowledge into practice.

The Houston Chinatown’s dramatic transformation from a Chinese enclave decades ago to a continually expanding multiethnic boomtown today contrasts development stagnation in many other traditional American Chinatowns. This pioneer study delineates the evolution of Houston’s two Chinatowns, from the emergence and decline of Old Chinatown to the subsequent development and vibrant growth of New Chinatown – spanning nearly a century.

Zheng and Zou delve into the distinctive character of New Chinatown, underscoring its innovative progress that sets it apart from the nation’s oldest major Chinatowns, a quintessentially Houston story. They also probe the immigrant experience, political landscape, and socioeconomic dynamics that influenced the Chinatowns’ metamorphoses. Scanning the community’s collective response to the dire impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on New Chinatown, the chapters examine the latest development trends in the New Chinatown areas, shedding light on the extent to which they are upholding, or deviating from, traditional practices. Furthermore, the book explores the significance of these trends to the local community and beyond, alongside their wider implications.

Amidst the growth challenges encountered by numerous Chinatowns across America, this timely work offers insightful perspectives on a sustainable model for urban and community development, as demonstrated by the transformative journey of Houston’s New Chinatown.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.

Over past decades, scholars and practitioners around the world observed an emergence of professionals, research managers and administrators (RMAs) who play an essential role in the advancement of academic research. RMAs have extensive knowledge of the research ecosystem, including funding opportunities, proposals, budgeting and pricing, ethics, open research, project management, finance, negotiation, strategy, systems, and assessment. Until now, limited efforts have been made to investigate RMAs in a cross-regional, comparative manner, or to understand the recent surge of the profession in a larger policy context.

Addressing this gap, an international group of experts share diverse perspectives to provide a comprehensive account of RMA as a profession, offer an analytical framework to understand their role in higher education and academic science. Covering countries in Africa, Australasia, East Asia and India, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America, the work provides trans-cultural coverage of the profession. Drawing on theories from related fields, it also provides insights and understanding of RMAs as a social phenomenon.

The Emerald Handbook of Research Management and Administration Around the World is the most comprehensive book about practitioners working in research management and administration. The book provides basic knowledge for students and professionals considering a career in this field, and serves as reference material for policymakers as well as academic researchers. By presenting evidence-based observations from around the world and discussing global trends, this text promotes social awareness of RMAs, shares state-of-the-art knowledge on the profession, and offers insights into the future of academic research.

As society becomes increasingly digitized, the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds blur, giving rise to a dynamic fusion of art, culture, and creativity within the creative industries. In the realm of visual arts, VR and AR have sparked a renaissance of experimentation and expression. The influence of VR and AR extends beyond art, extending its transformative touch to fields like music, literature, and even cultural heritage preservation within the creative industries. The book introduces readers to the roots and evolution of VR and AR, exploring the pioneers, breakthroughs, and influential developments that have paved the way for their integration into everyday life.

The book includes case studies and real-world examples showcasing how these cutting-edge technologies have revolutionized cultural experiences within the creative industries. From virtual museums that transport visitors to distant historical eras, to augmented reality installations that merge digital art with physical spaces, the book uncovers a myriad of innovative applications within the fields of design, media, fashion, gaming, and more.

The profound societal implications of these technologies within the creative industries are examined in detail and the research addresses the challenges and ethical considerations surrounding VR and AR within the creative industries. The book culminates with a compelling vision of the future, exploring how these technologies are set to reshape culture and creativity within the creative industries in the years to come.

The rise of White nationalism has been a global phenomenon, drawing more attention to race and racism, and creating a heightened sense of White identity. As demographics in North America shift, White people are becoming increasingly aware of the racist structures and sentiments that have been embedded in society for centuries. While mainstream political rhetoric appears moderate on the surface, it also appeals to extremist views. There is an increase in hate speech and hate crime targeting members of equity-deserving groups.

White therapists and clients are overrepresented as counsellors and psychotherapists, while Indigenous, Black and People of Colour are significantly underrepresented. Multicultural counseling often tends to prioritize “others” from “different cultures”, while the training in multicultural practice crucial it tends to underemphasize systemic forces. Social justice considers power differentials and systemic contributors, but with a broad focus on anti-oppressive practice. Antiracist practice explicitly targets White supremacy and its effects on marginalized communities. There is relatively little written for White therapists about how they and their White clients can dismantle White supremacy.

Structural barriers rooted in White supremacy have a detrimental effect on all people, but the most disadvantaged are Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour. By drawing attention to this issue, and building support among White practitioners, Jason Brown aims to dismantle White supremacy in professional activities with clients, in the profession itself, and in public policy.

In a post-COVID-19 pandemic era of cost-of-living crises and global displacements of people due to conflicts and climate challenges, food poverty is a growing and ever-pressing issue across both the Global North and the Global South. Presenting a collection of cases drawn from higher education research, teaching and learning, as well as campus and community-based initiatives, Higher Education and SDG2 addresses food security, nutrition, sustainable and resilient agriculture, and ending hunger for all.

Featuring chapters and cases from Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Italy, Malawi, Northern Ireland, Peru, Turkey, the UK, the USA, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, this edited collection demonstrates the fundamental role Higher Education has in helping deliver Zero Hunger. The chapters cover education, research and community engagement initiatives that aim to address how this issue impacts the nations that face the most widespread and severe effects of hunger, food insecurity, malnutrition, and unsustainable food systems. Focusing on opportunities for Higher Education to positively influence academic, innovation, and policy agendas, this synthesis of global approaches is an inspirational call to action for increasing meaningful engagement by universities and colleges to address SDG2 Zero Hunger.

Higher Education and the Sustainable Development Goals is a series of 17 books that address each of the SDGs through the lens of higher education. Adopting a solutions-based approach, each book focuses on how higher education is advancing delivery of Agenda 2030. The series is edited by Wendy Purcell, Professor with Rutgers University and Academic Research Scholar with Harvard University; Emeritus Professor and University President Emerita.

Genderwashing is the process whereby organizational rhetoric differs from the lived experiences of workers, creating the myth of gender equity in the workplace. Genderwashing in Leadership considers how the process of genderwashing highlights hidden biases in organizational policies and procedures, and patriarchal cultural practices.

International scholars from diverse areas such as leadership, organizational studies, sociology, and education explore how genderwashing occurs from various perspectives, including leadership, power and privilege, identity, and career recruitment and selection. Uncovering epistemological assumptions that underpin and sustain genderwashing practices, the ways in which genderwashing intersects with embodiment and intersectionality and how genderwashing policies and practices restrict women’s advancement into leadership, the editors host a space for dialogue and debate.

The Transformative Women Leaders Series is published in collaboration between the International Leadership Association (ILA) and Emerald Publishing. Celebrating women leaders and the leadership styles they employ to achieve success, the books in this series highlight successful context-specific leadership approaches and the moral qualities of endurance.

Professional Perspectives on Banking and Finance is a collection of cutting-edge articles written by practitioners for practitioners. Addressing core topics such as risk management, corporate governance, and strategy, but with the emphasis on recent developments and their impact on the industry. These gathered chapters reflect a diverse global outlook, addressing issues of importance and relevance for all bankers.

With 100% emphasis on accessible, clear, and applicable advice Professional Perspectives on Banking and Finance provides suggestions to instil best practice in any commercial bank.

Humour is officially recognized in positive psychology as one of the 24 ‘character strengths’. However, laughter has an uneasy relationship with positive psychology, despite being key to communicating joy and happiness.The Positive Psychology of Laughter and Humour corrects this disconnect by combining academic insight with real-world experience. Drawing on the authors’ diverse backgrounds and expertise, this is the first academic volume dedicated to the rarely discussed topic of laughter and humour in positive psychology.

Freda Gonot-Schoupinsky, Merv Neal and Jerome Carson demonstrate how laughter and humour differ, and how both can be applied within positive psychology to boost mood and maintain positive outcomes.The Positive Psychology of Laughter and Humour includes case studies and real-world insight as well as providing a methodological and theoretical background to the topic, giving rigorous theoretical and methodological insight for researchers, and including pedagogical sections in each chapter useful for teachers and researchers.

Special education has changed over the years since its inception due to advocacy, litigation, legislation, trends, and research investigations. While it can be somewhat controversial depending on the disability the child might have or professionals involved in the process of instructing and planning his/her future education, it is a field that has values that has had measurable impacts on people’s lives. Special Education: Advancing Values focuses on values that are engrained in special education and how we can maintain, sustain, and advance them. It also addresses the most current viewpoints and perspectives on the traditions of special education for students with disabilities alongside new and innovative practices.  

Special Education: Advancing Values is a very comprehensive book. The chapters introduce the field of special education and how we can maintain and advance traditions in the education of students with learning disabilities, emotional and/or behavioral disorders, intellectual disabilities, physical and other health impairments, students who are deaf/hard of hearing, students with visual impairments, and students with extensive support needs. Related topics include students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, general education teachers, school leaders and administrators, and parents.

Special Education: Advancing Values concludes with a summary chapter that addresses why special education is an important educational phenomenon that has fundamental values worthy of sustainability and advancements. This volume is an excellent resource for special education professionals who teach and serve learners with disabilities, and other related professionals involved in the educational process such as administrators, school counsellors, and psychologists.

While the physical and emotional trials of waiting on transplant lists are featured in popular media, the struggles recipients face years after surgery are not. Voices of Teenage Transplant Survivors introduces illness narratives from an unrecognized patient population: recipients of heart, liver, and kidney transplants. Offering unique narratives by adolescents who use poetry to explore issues surrounding the changing body, independence, identity, and mortality, the book showcases a message of healing and voices of hope amid uncertainty.

Illuminating the physical, psychological, and existential challenges confronted by adolescents for which organ rejection and side effects loom in their future, Sample details the poetry workshops where these adolescents articulated experiences silenced by family, friends, and the culture of medicine. She includes close readings and analyses of their writings, along with writing prompts and references to narrative medicine theory. This powerful book offers something new for medical and health professionals, medical humanities researchers, students, and the public.

African Leadership is an edited collection enriched by the people who have lived and experienced indigenous leadership first-hand, demonstrating how African leadership is distinctive from usual Western hegemonic paradigms.

Providing an indepth discussion of the components, context, followers, and skills that contribute to the success of African leaders, African Leadership concludes with meaningful applications for 21st-century leaders globally.

Real and meaningful educational ethnography requires researchers to grapple with how they come to know what they know. In Black Boys' Lived and Everyday Experiences in STEM, KiMi Wilson invites us to understand the experiences of four Black boys attempting to learn mathematics and science in K-12 spaces. How do mitigating circumstances and fraught relationships impede on their journey to sharpening their mathematical and scientific skills?

Taking us on a sociocultural trek of the best and worst elements of public education, Wilson provides access to a bird's eye view of how Black boys experience schooling on a day-to-day basis. Through phenomenological interview, readers are let into the minds of students Carter, Malik, Darius, and Thomas, and given the opportunity to understand how they identify themselves. Showcasing a mixture of revelations, we learn how some of their perceptions come from an authentic place, while others were out of their own control, and decided by individuals blind to their potential. Imagining a world where Black boys are encouraged to work on STEM goals rather than abandon them, this important book is for educators, researchers, teachers, administrators, and superintendents who want to create school cultures that value Black boys, and want to reimagine teaching spaces for them.

This volume of Research in the Sociology of Health Care analyses a variety of important social factors and their relationship to health and health care inequities in both the United States and the rest of the world.

With distinct sections for vaccination and other related topics, the chapters unveil the health care inequities that exist across a broad range of scenarios such as residential segregation, rurality, caregiving during COVID-19, the effects of stress on patients of color with chronic illnesses, cochlear implants in children, community health centers and viral load testing.

Employing a sociological and broader social sciences approach, Social Factors, Health Care Inequities and Vaccination draws on a variety of contexts, including the COVID-19 pandemic, to explore wider trends in healthcare and the impact they may have on historically disadvantaged communities.

Welcome to Bardstown, KY: The Bourbon Capital of the World®

Bourbon’s popularity is now a global phenomenon, but you need only look at Bardstown, Kentucky, to see its remarkable and evolving impacts. This historic city of 13,500 people is booming as a result, but it’s also enduring growing pains.

The economic impacts from a massive influx of tourists to what is now America’s bourbon epicenter are positive on many levels, but with those crowds comes pressure on infrastructure, services and accommodations. The demand for hotels, bars and restaurants is at an all-time high, and investors from across the globe are addressing those needs.

Still, as a two-century-old Kentucky cultural and entertainment center long before it was discovered by bourbon drinkers ;– many locals want to ensure the traditional Bardstown experience doesn’t disappear amid novel entertainment options.

Teacher attrition and burnout have been researched in school districts all over the country for several decades. Characterised by physical and psychological exhaustion, cynicism (as an interpersonal and emotional indication of built-up aggression), and a sense of helplessness and low self-efficacy, burnout can lead to anxiety, depression, diminished job performance, absenteeism, and attrition.

Drawn to the Flame investigates incidences of burnout and burnout avoidance among educators in both K-12 and higher education spheres during the COVID-19 pandemic – a period that saw an intensification and increased frequency of polarizing sociocultural and socio-political conditions, resulting in psychosocial and emotional strain among those invested in education. Through narrative inquiry, the chapters present the stories of teachers in a variety of settings (e.g. urban, suburban, rural) and sociological conditions (economic, racial, sex/gender), who experienced first-hand the impact of the pandemic and the chaotic transition to remote learning, the impact of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and racial strife, on students and curricular planning processes.

Using Technology to Enhance Special Education, Volume 37 of Advances in Special Education, is a logically, thoughtfully organized, and well-sequenced text. It focuses on how general and special educators can use technology to work with children and youth with disabilities.

This cutting-edge book involves researchers, scholars, educators, and leaders who are knowledge producers in the field. It is written to respond to today’s changing world where technology has become a very powerful force. As it stands, the world is getting smaller and smaller; and what is happening in a location quickly becomes known everywhere. For example, during the tense periods of the global COVID pandemic, technology became the livewire of our world. This book begins with an introduction to technology and students with disabilities; and the remaining chapters focus on the role of technology in the education of students with learning disabilities, emotional and/or behavioral disorders, and intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, physical and health impairments, hearing impairments/deafness, visual impairments, and traumatic brain injuries.

In addition, some chapters focus on the role of technology in achieving equitable and inclusive education, building culturally and linguistically responsive general and special education, and creatively using digital comics to improve written narratives. In the end, this book concludes with a chapter that forward looking ways to infuse technology in special education. We feel that this volume is an excellent resource for special education researchers, scholars, practitioners, and professionals who teach and serve students with disabilities.

Over the past three decades, guidance on the selection of art in hospitals has suggested realistic art that depicts soothing and comforting images such as tranquil waters, green vegetation, flowers, and open spaces. Based on these findings, curators have been cautioned to avoid art with uncertain meaning that risks upsetting viewers in stressful states. However, some hospitals exhibit ambiguous or abstract art and cite anecdotal evidence of its appropriateness for healthcare settings. More recent research is going beyond anecdotal evidence, and indicates that the ambiguity of meaning in abstract compositions can have positive effects.

'Purpose-built' Art in Hospitals is built on an international study of artwork in hospitals around the globe. Exploring 'purpose-built' (specially commissioned) artwork in hospitals through the dual lens of an artist and healthcare professional, Rollins identifies 15 specific 'purposes' of visual artwork in hospitals and presents a compelling case for their use that is grounded in research. The book builds the reader's understanding of the many functions of artwork in hospitals, with the goal of encouraging greater variety in art offerings to better serve the many diverse needs of patients, families, visitors and staff within the hospital environment.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.

As Africa stands at the threshold of rapid global and technological change, Transforming Africa offers a timely, agenda-setting response to the urgent call for bold, future-oriented innovation across the continent.

This edited volume explores how African countries can reshape their innovation ecosystems to meet contemporary challenges and opportunities. It brings together diverse perspectives on emerging issues such as artificial intelligence, fintech, and smart agriculture, alongside critical socio-economic themes including food systems, health, education, culture, fashion, and peacebuilding. Transforming Africa is a call to action: to reimagine Africa’s innovation agenda with greater urgency, creativity, and contextual relevance. It highlights the rise of alternative paradigms and local approaches to innovation that challenge dominant models and offer more inclusive and sustainable pathways forward.

Rich in insight and grounded in practice, this volume is essential reading for policymakers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and students interested in Africa’s development and innovation futures. It is the third in a series produced by the Africa Innovation Summit Foundation and is supported by ICESCO.

This volume contains an Open Access chapter.

While the domains of organizational theory, grand challenges, and environmental sociology have developed via relatively distinct fields in sociology and management, they speak to a common set of social change phenomena at the intersection of the state, non-profits, and businesses. Organizations and Climate Change brings together new empirical papers that bridge these domains and sets an agenda for a more holistic theory of organizations and climate change, a theory that examines how various kinds of organizations respond to what is considered as one of the most important challenges for humanity during the 21st century.

Each of papers included in this volume focus on the way in which organizations shape or respond to the climate change challenge. Three papers examine how business organizations address the climate change problem, including corporate communication of climate change mitigation actions, corporate strategies that undermine decarbonization, and corporate marketing of low-carbon technologies. Three papers investigate how non-profit organizations form networks that shape climate change negotiations, incorporate climate change into their missions, and justify not incorporating climate change into their mission. Finally, three papers explore how universities, boundary organizations, and organizational fields engage in climate change mitigation or attempt to influence other organizations to engage in these actions. The afterword summarizes research on both enablers and blockers of climate action and identifies several promising directions for future work.

Organizations and Climate Change distils insights and highlights opportunities for future research on organizations and the climate change grand challenge.

Completely revised and updated to match current needs, especially after COVID, Strategic Marketing Management in Asia was written with the special purpose of creating a unique marketing management offering that would be contextually relevant, adding value for Asian students interested in understanding the basics of marketing. Asia comprises more than 60 percent of the global population, living in 51 sovereign nations. According to the World Bank’s financial forecasts, Asia is the fastest growing economic region, and the largest continental economy in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), in the world. The continent is currently undergoing rapid growth and industrialization spearheaded by China and India, the two fastest growing major economies in the world.

With a view to continue the current growth momentum, excel in all phases of business, and create future leadership in Asia and across the globe, there is a need to develop a deep understanding of the Asian business environment, and how to create effective marketing strategies that will help growing their businesses. Featuring top academics and practitioners, this book helps academics and students understand key issues, especially in the context of changing economic and related challenges in the Asian markets. Multi-industry case studies address how market opportunities need to be created, how to leverage constrained capabilities, and how to create sustainable, competitive advantage to pursue profitable growth in Asia. The case studies are drawn from across Asia, including Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Vietnam and Singapore.

Modern Trends in Islamic Economy: Philanthropy, Finance and Marketing Innovations explores the dynamic evolution of Islamic economy, highlighting its adaptability in addressing global challenges through the convergence of traditional values and modern innovations. The book provides comprehensive insights into how Islamic principles inform philanthropy, finance, and marketing, emphasizing their transformative potential as tools for ethical innovation, sustainable development, and inclusive business practices.

The book examines the pivotal role of Islamic philanthropy, particularly waqf (endowments) and zakat (charitable giving), as mechanisms for addressing socio-economic inequalities and fostering community resilience. Innovations like cash waqf and sukuk (Islamic bonds) are analyzed, showcasing their capacity to create sustainable funding models for addressing issues such as disaster relief, education, and poverty alleviation. Practical case studies offer real-world examples of how these tools are effectively utilized in various regions, including South Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Emerald Studies in Islamic Economy and Finance (ESIEF) is dedicated to advancing the knowledge and understanding of Islamic economics and finance. In an era where the global economic landscape is constantly evolving this will series seeks to contribute significantly to the academic discourse surrounding Islamic economy and finance building on the rich heritage of Islamic economic thought while embracing contemporary perspectives and challenges. The series is also committed to fostering rigorous academic inquiry promoting scholarly collaboration and ultimately enriching the understanding of Islamic economics and finance in the global context.

The world is evolving at an unprecedented pace, driven by the transformative forces of the Integrated Industrial revolution (4^th-5^th Industrial Revolutions)—a new era where data, connectivity, and human-machine interaction define progress. For libraries, this revolution presents both challenges and opportunities, demanding innovation in services, technologies, and strategies.

Both Volume 1 and 2 of Innovating in Libraries explore how academic libraries can harness emerging technologies, integrate Human-Tech synergistic and reciprocal solutions, and support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on education, industry innovation, and reducing inequality. Contributions from leading experts and practitioners—many drawn from across the globe and selections from the Zimbabwe University Library Consortium’s 5th Biennial International Conference—offer global insights into spatial design for digital libraries, platform capitalism, open science, ethics, change management, and more.

With an international perspective and forward-thinking approach, Innovating in Libraries is essential for library professionals, educators, and policymakers navigating the future of information access in an era of rapid change.

The global economic environment is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with technological advancements, geopolitical shifts, and climate change reshaping the way economies function. Islamic countries, rich in natural resources and cultural heritage, are uniquely positioned to navigate these changes. However, many of these nations face challenges such as political instability, economic diversification, and infrastructural deficits.

The Economic Potential of Islamic Countries delves into the multifaceted economic landscape of Islamic nations, providing a comprehensive analysis of their strengths, opportunities, and challenges. In an era of rapid globalization and shifting economic paradigms, this book arrives at a crucial juncture, offering fresh insights and strategic recommendations for leveraging the collective potential of these countries. The data-driven analysis also provides case studies from countries such as Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others, offering a comparative analysis of economic policies and outcomes in various Islamic countries, drawing lessons from both successes and failures.

Readers will benefit from the interdisciplinary insights, providing a holistic view that addresses the multifaceted challenges and opportunities in Islamic economies. In addition it provides practical policy recommendations grounded in empirical research, guiding policymakers, business leaders, and academics towards effective strategies for sustainable economic development.

At the turn of the 20th century, Barcelona's industrialist bourgeoisie showcased their wealth commissioning family residences from renowned architects embracing the modernist style. Within these families, a chocolatier emerged, expressing opulence through the iconic Casa Amatller, now a symbol of the city. How did a manufacturer of staple foodstuffs ascend to prominence alongside the foremost industrial figures of the nation?

This research unravels a success story in family business history, while engaging with debates in business and management research through the application of corporate strategy tool frameworks. The methodology incorporates a longitudinal approach of a company’s practices, departing from traditional cross-sectional business analyses, transforming static models into dynamic ones. This case study focuses on the creation of competitive advantages within a business dynasty spanning from 1797 to 1936 across four generations. The analysis of competitive advantage adheres to Michael Porter's model within the Value Chain (1985), meticulously examining the emergence and sustaining of advantages through a detailed assessment of each corporate activity.

Frontiers of Management History combines the craft of the business historian with the methodology of the social scientist to offer interdisciplinary perspectives on the management history field alongside theories frameworks critiques and applications for practice. The main aim of the series is to create a new space in which to engage a new generation of historians and social scientists in order to contribute to the future direction of business organizational and management history.

Childhood obesity is a global health concern, with food advertising one of its most intensively debated potential causes. Critically examining children’s exposure to unhealthy food and drink marketing, on television and on various online platforms including YouTube and Facebook, and how they evaluate and comprehend this content, Nipa Saha reviews the effectiveness of the industry’s self-regulatory system in Australia.

Providing an overview of current government initiatives to enhance children’s media literacy skills and evaluating the effectiveness of these programs, Saha recommends broad actions to be taken at federal, state or local levels that focus on developing these skills and increasing self-regulation.

The first book to explore the research concerned with the Australian context of food advertising to children, Food Advertising to Children in Australia equips policymakers, parents, educators and researchers to better shape and consider potential interventions with life-saving implications for children’s health.

This edited volume introduces underrepresented narratives on how digital media platforms shape identity, culture, and politics among young audiences in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with a special focus on Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, two of the world’s most digitally connected regions.

The 17 quantitative studies in this collection explore the extent to which social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat influence Saudi youth values, affect Bahraini women’s beauty standards, foster critical thinking among students, and enhance Saudi Arabia’s global image and public diplomacy. It also examines how journalists at media institutions and Bahrain's Ministry of Information utilize artificial intelligence applications and WhatsApp to facilitate their work and communication.

The volume’s reliance on a systematic adaptation of Cultivation Theory as a theoretical framework across the chapters ensures a coherent research agenda and methodological rigor. Its adoption of descriptive and quantitative approaches reinforces its academic contribution to media effects research.

The empirical insights presented in this volume are an essential resource for scholars, students, and policymakers interested in media, culture, and youth in the Gulf region.

Technological Innovation and Sustainability for Business Competitive Advantage highlights business problems faced by institutions in a scientific way, finding possible practical solutions. Contributing to setting and improving business theories and practices and encouraging scientific research in technological innovation and sustainability, volumes activate dialogue between academics, practitioners and individuals and provide recommendations to improve institutions.

Military operations are constantly evolving, requiring leaders to adapt to new challenges. The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a solution to these challenges, integrating sensing, actuator, and control systems with existing infrastructure. This approach has significantly impacted various industries, including military and defence applications.

To address the major challenges to IoT security from the perspective of the defence industry, the editors of The Internet of Things in the Defence Industry: Challenges and Solutions for Military Security have collected chapters to focus on contemporary topics related to IoT security. They discuss the consequences of IoT security from the perspective of the defence sector before evaluating, addressing, and offering recommendations. Unique to this collection is the possible decision-making solutions, which provides effective recommendation-related solutions. Further, this work tackles a topic that has never been addressed, especially from the standpoint of the defence industry: safeguarding IoT applications against manipulation in a defence organisation in numerous ways in order to maintain security.

The Internet of Things in the Defence Industry marks a turning point in the defence industry by providing new perspectives for researchers and security suggestions for engineers. It also aids those learning about IoT security for the first time by presenting it from the perspective of the defence sector.

A Critical Look at Information Science and Librarianship in a New Age: Constellation of Insanity fosters a platform for information scientists to engage in reflection and contemplation regarding the profound questions of our era. By drawing insights from pioneers in the field whose contributions were once marginalized or, in some instances, overlooked within the realm of information science, chapter authors strive to re/center the field's focal point.

Chapter authors draw from a diverse array of frameworks including critical theory, deconstruction, queer theory, borderlands, among others. What sets this book apart is its direct confrontation of the status quo and aggressively re/claims intellectual space for "others". This is the only book to critique the entire discipline of Information Science from as many angles as possible in one volume and as far outside of the traditional organizations.

Transforming Financial Management with AI, BI, and Data-Driven Decision Making offers a comprehensive exploration of how emerging technologies are revolutionising the financial landscape. This timely work delves into the powerful convergence of artificial intelligence, business intelligence, and data analytics, providing financial professionals with a roadmap to harness these tools for operational efficiency, risk mitigation, and strategic growth. Through a blend of theoretical insights and practical implementation strategies, readers will gain a deep understanding of how to navigate and lead in a rapidly evolving financial environment.

As organisations grapple with the exponential growth of data and the increasing complexity of digital tools, the ability to make informed, data-driven decisions has become a critical differentiator. This essential guide for business leaders, analysts, and decision-makers offers real-world case studies, actionable frameworks, and applied methodologies, it empowers readers to translate technological potential into measurable business outcomes—driving innovation, eliminating inefficiencies, and achieving sustained competitive advantage in the data-driven era.

Women entrepreneurs in the Global South are an important force for driving economic growth and social progress. Yet, traditional economic thinking often treats entrepreneurship as gender-neutral, viewing entrepreneurs as rational, self-reliant individuals removed from the realities of gender, class, age, or cultural background. This view overlooks the specific challenges women face and can limit their opportunities and contributions. This book reframes entrepreneurship as a pathway for inclusion and social transformation. It calls for a gender-responsive approach that acknowledges and addresses the unique barriers women encounter. The chapters explore a range of themes using qualitative methods and highlight how gender often intersects with other issues such as migration, violence, and inequality.

Since its debut in 1996, Tomb Raider has profoundly impacted gaming and popular culture, solidifying Lara Croft’s status as a lasting pop culture icon. As the franchise celebrates its 30th anniversary, this academic collection delves into Tomb Raider’s legacy from interdisciplinary perspectives, examining gender representation, fan culture, and broader cultural influence.

Organized into four sections, the collection transitions from character-focused critiques to broader cultural and genre-based discussions, demonstrating how Lara’s legacy intersects with diverse scholarly perspectives. From being hailed as a feminist icon to facing criticism as a "cyberbimbo," Lara Croft has sparked diverse interpretations and discussions. This collection explores Lara’s role in shaping gender representation in gaming, her contested feminist icon status, and how fans engage with the franchise’s evolving narrative. It also examines Tomb Raider’s impact on the action-adventure genre and critiques its portrayal of colonial themes and cultural heritage.

Tomb Raider at 30 is a critical resource for understanding Tomb Raider’s multifaceted impact over the past three decades of interest to scholars across Social Media Studies, Communication Studies, Digital Communication and Digital Sociology.

Despite its wide reception and productive applications in various regions across the world, the Sociology of Sport has only recently begun to gain scholarly attention in the field of Southeast Asian Studies. Recognizing that the role of sport in the region merits thorough and comprehensive analysis, the studies in this volume shed light on the socio-cultural dynamics within Southeast Asia’s sporting sphere.

Demonstrating how Southeast Asian sporting games, during both the precolonial and (early) modern-state eras, have played a key role in broader social processes and social change, and how, in turn, they themselves have transformed in content and meaning, the chapters in this collection reveal how people construct their group, national, economic, and social identities to negotiate with each other in sporting settings across the region and the world during each epoch. This volume covers the long-term development of sport in Southeast Asia, affirming the importance of sport in every era. It opens with discussions of the colonial and early modern eras, before guiding readers through the landscape of sport in postcolonial and Cold War settings. Additionally, the volume highlights several vital contemporary issues in sport, including lucrative international sporting events, the participation of refugees in sports, and sports policy.

Addressing the plethora of aspects of sporting cultures in Southeast Asia which remain relatively, or completely, unresearched by scholars, this volume offers research that is key to understanding the sporting culture of a vast, densely populated, globally significant, and sports-obsessed region.

Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research: An ASEAN Context bridges theory and practice through empirical and conceptual studies, presenting a curated collection of empirical and conceptual studies, that examine diverse facets of hospitality and tourism development across ASEAN destinations.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) stands as a pivotal intergovernmental organisation, fostering economic, political, social, and cultural collaboration among its ten member states. Within this dynamic regional context, hospitality and tourism research demands a nuanced approach that bridges robust theoretical frameworks with practical, actionable insights. This volume addresses the critical need for such integration by presenting a curated collection of empirical and conceptual studies that examine diverse facets of hospitality and tourism development, management, marketing, education, and sustainability across ASEAN destinations.

As part of a dedicated series advancing hospitality and tourism education, research, and professionalism in Southeast Asia, this timely work champions a collaborative ethos among scholars, educators, industry practitioners, policymakers, and students. By encouraging co-authored chapters and fostering dialogue between academia and industry, the volume ensures that research not only informs practice but is also shaped by real-world challenges and opportunities.

Trauma-Informed Higher Education: Fostering Systemic Change Across Disciplines showcases how higher education, infused with trauma-informed practices, has the potential to foster social justice and contribute to social change by integrating a nuanced understanding of trauma into curriculum, pedagogy, research, and organisational structures in higher education.

The contextualisation of trauma-informed practices within Australian higher education settings is a distinctive aspect of this exploration. Each chapter explores the cultural, social, and institutional dynamics unique to the Australian context, offering insights that are tailored to the specific needs and challenges within this educational landscape, yet at the same time offers valuable insights to the international community. Ultimately, this book is a beacon for those committed to cultivating educational and organisational practices that honour the lived experiences of students and staff.

Trauma-Informed Higher Education: Fostering Systemic Change Across Disciplines provides a practical roadmap for implementation of specific trauma-informed practices in higher education across diverse disciplines, appealing to academics from various fields looking to integrate research findings into their teaching methodologies and curriculum development. Higher education staff with a commitment to social justice and equity in education will find this book particularly appealing as it explores how trauma-informed practices can contribute to dismantling systemic inequalities and effect societal change.

Permaculture gardens are hands-on holistic regenerative opportunities for more life-centred business education. Community gardening is a growing movement worldwide, offering multiple environmental and social benefits, including greater energy efficiency in buildings, enhanced biodiversity in cities, production of locally grown, organic vegetables, integration of local community both as producers and consumers, enhanced wellbeing, and learning opportunities.

Regenerating Learning offers a fascinating exploration of the challenges and opportunities of hands-on sustainability learning in a business school context through the development of a permaculture garden on the campus. Blasco and Fróes chart the process of ideating and creating ‘Permahaven’ - a permaculture garden designed to function as a hub for learning and disseminating knowledge about regenerative social and environmental practices inspired by permaculture principles and as a restorative space within the campus. 

Exploring the opportunities and challenges of undertaking such a project at a business school, Regenerating Learning provides a template for other schools to follow.

Sustainability is a topic which has become universal and is of concern to everyone. The effects and impact can be very varied according to what action is taken. Much research has been done in this area but mostly looking its impact upon businesses and the economy with the environment being considered to a lesser extent. Very little research has however been undertaken to consider the impact upon individuals within society. All research tends to consider the societal or organisational level instead. This book therefore seeks to redress this imbalance by looking at the social at a local and individual level. In doing so it addresses a wide variety of topics and issues. The contributions in this volume come from all over the world and demonstrate that the same issues affect us all no matter where we are located. In this book we look at a number of diverse issues which need to be considered, these are all considered in the context of their implication for individuals, society and the way they affect cultural issues.

An extensive legal, moral, and ethical infrastructure supports business transactions and economic values in the industrial economy. This infrastructure is grounded in the concept of tangible property, its production and consumption. Today we have a deeper understanding of the nature of knowledge and its unique economic properties and behaviours. We now understand that a reinterpretation is needed to ensure that healthy and trusted economic knowledge markets exist.

Knowledge Ethics for the Knowledge Economy explores whether an extension or a redefinition of the legal, moral, and ethical infrastructure is needed. The authors review the fundamental assumptions of tangible property markets and transactions and test their applicability to intangible assets.

Given the new properties and principles of the knowledge economy, there is a need to re-examine these properties and principles. This guide provides a proactive and forward-looking perspective for managers to adapt and shape to suit their work environments.

Historically, companies have engaged in sustainable practices like recycling and refurbishing, but Green Technology and the Circular Economy: Towards a Sustainable Future provides modern, actionable strategies for reshaping operations. With these insights, businesses can minimize their environmental impact and maximize innovation in a rapidly evolving world.

Green Technology and the Circular Economy explores the transformative potential of the circular economy as a critical response to the global call for environmental stewardship. Delving into the principles of restorative and regenerative design, chapters advocate for reduced material consumption and the adoption of clean technologies. By emphasising the efficient reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing of products and materials, the authors highlight how the circular economy offers a sustainable alternative to the traditional linear economic model, driving resource efficiency and long-term sustainability. This edited collection also addresses the growing importance of sustainability in technology, particularly within the IT sector, where the challenges of electronic waste and carbon emissions from algorithmic training are becoming increasingly urgent. By introducing the concept of Green AI, the authors demonstrate how businesses can reduce their environmental footprint while still leveraging innovation through predictive modelling.

An essential read for academics and practitioners with a vested interest in innovation in green technology, Smart Cities, marine ecosystems and environmental issues.

The affordable housing crisis and its impact on a growing population is one of the most significant political and policy issues in the US and globally. The Financialization of Human Shelter examines the factors contributing to the sharp rise in rental housing costs in the US, the financialization of housing, and the consequences for tenants.

Based on a public sociology research project conducted in the Sunbelt city of Jacksonville, Florida, authors Jaffee and Renzi delve into the financialization of housing in the rental housing market involving the acquisition by corporate entities of single-family and multifamily properties that are then bundled into portfolios as asset class investment opportunities for wealthy investors. Analyzing how this business model driving this trend is organized to extract the maximum amount of income from the properties and provide a healthy return to investors through the raising of rents, adding of superfluous fees, and minimizing of maintenance costs, this study shows how tenants face rising cost burdens, unsafe conditions, housing insecurity, displacement, and homelessness. Informed by a conceptual depth and rich quantitative and qualitative data, the authors assess how policy could address the affordable rental housing crisis and the need for investment in public, non-profit, housing provision protected from market forces.

Highlighting the role of community-engaged, public sociology as a driver for addressing a pressing social issue, this is refreshing reading for those interested in alternative and critical analyzes of the rental housing system in the US, urban case studies, and the struggles of renters/tenants as an exploited class.

Counseling Black Men and Boys with Excellence: Exploring Career, Clinical, and School Contexts provides practice, research, and policy implications for practitioners, faculty, researchers and policy makers in the field of counseling to address the most pressing issues that Black men and boys continually encounter.

Chapters address salient gaps in the theoretical and scientific literature by offering compelling insights and perspectives that underscore the opportunities and challenges of counseling Black men and boys. Collectively, the chapters present a range of counseling tactics and other modalities that help career, clinical, and school counselors effectively support and work with Black men and boys.

Grounded in evidence-based research and the implementation science literature, the collection of chapters also offers counseling professionals and others with practical information and solutions in working with Black men and boys.

The way we design and build our cities, buildings, and public spaces takes on critical importance in the face of critical issues such as climate change, social inequality, and rapid urbanization. Architecture and design not only shape the environments in which we live but also influence energy use, natural resource management, and social inclusion. These disciplines have the potential to play a pivotal role in advancing sustainable development, yet their contributions are often overlooked.

Sustainability, Resilience, and Inclusiveness through Human-Centred Architecture and Design examines the profound ways in which architecture and design can contribute to global imperatives framed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those focused on sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), and reduced inequalities (SDG 10).

This volume offers a three-part exploration. Part 1 delves into energy efficiency, discussing innovations like biomimicry for zero-energy buildings and IoT-integrated systems in educational spaces. Part 2 bridges sustainability and heritage preservation, showcasing AI-assisted designs and adaptive placemaking strategies. Finally, Part 3 presents real-world case studies, from Saudi Arabia’s sustainable design frameworks to the impact of the pandemic on residential spaces in Egypt. With fresh insights and empirical evidence, this collected edition sets a new agenda for integrating human-centered approaches into sustainable design and architecture. Providing a vital resource for academics, policymakers, architects, and urban planners, Human-Centered Architecture and Design underscores the urgent need for collaboration across disciplines to create a built environment that supports thriving, resilient, and inclusive communities.

Participation in education is essential in fostering the full agency of people within society. Higher education is subject to a variety of rights for students, and often these rights are protected by law or by university policy. Rights and Responsibilities in Higher Education explores how higher education institutions have responded to this human-rights-based approach to higher education.

Introducing the concept of educational rights and their role in the emerging university of the twenty-first century, the chapters in this collection delve into how educational stakeholders must understand the nature of rights and the role they play in shaping, often implicitly, an institution’s ethos, customs, norms, and traditions, and how educational rights should be reflected in the institution’s mission, vision, and values statements. The expertly collated contributions do not assume that rights are universal at all higher education institutions. The authors explore how historical, politico-legal, economic, sociocultural, colonial and environmental context impacts university rights and responsibilities.

Rights and Responsibilities in Higher Education is appealing reading for any educator interested in higher education institutions' educational development.

Prominent scholars of Peace Journalism (PJ), Jake Lynch and Annabel McGoldrick, define the concept as "When editors and reporters make choices—about what to report, and how to report it—that create opportunities for society at large to consider and value non-violent responses to conflict." However, it has been challenged by media scholars, who argue that it is entirely “unfeasible” within the current media structure, “simplistic,” and subjective. Others label it as journalism of “attachment” and “advocacy.”

This edited volume challenges these critiques by providing empirical evidence that Peace Journalism is not only feasible but is already being practiced—particularly in digital media spaces. This well researched study presents nine quantitative studies exploring the extent of applying Peace Journalism (PJ) orientations in global, regional, and social media coverage of conflicts in the Middle East, the chapters also argue that such digital platforms can serve as tools for bridging the gap between conflicting parties, thereby promoting dialogue and peacebuilding.

Technological Innovation and Sustainability for Business Competitive Advantage highlights business problems faced by institutions in a scientific way, finding possible practical solutions. Contributing to setting and improving business theories and practices and encouraging scientific research in technological innovation and sustainability, volumes activate dialogue between academics, practitioners and individuals and provide recommendations to improve institutions.

Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions stands out from the competition due to its focus on three key characteristics: studies from scholars in different countries, with different research questions, relying on different theoretical perspective. Such a broad and inclusive approach to mergers and acquisitions is not easily replicated in academic journals, with much narrower mandates and metrics.

Volume 24 of this annual series explores a range of issues, from the pre-deal phase of mergers and acquisitions, merger integration and value judgements in the public sector, to private equity-backed buy-and-build strategy and UK regional economic governance.

This collection of new and current research highlights interesting behavioural themes as well as timely practical solutions to the dilemma of mergers and acquisitions failures. Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions Volume 24 is of interest to scholars in strategic management, organizational theory and behaviour who are studying questions around mergers and acquisitions. Doctoral students will benefit from access to the diversity of research that can trigger new research questions and expanded research agendas.

Play-based Teaching in Higher Education explores the transformative power of play in the education of future teachers. This volume brings together a collection of research articles that delve into the use of play-based teaching methods with adult students, particularly in teacher education programs.

The chapters present a compelling case for integrating play into higher education, highlighting its potential to enhance learning, foster critical reflection, and build strong relationships among students and educators. Through various studies and case examples, the book examines the benefits and challenges of playful pedagogy, offering insights into how play can be used to prepare students for their future roles as educators.

Readers will discover how play-based teaching can create a more engaging and collaborative learning environment, promote deeper understanding, and encourage creativity and experimentation. Play-based Teaching in Higher Education is an essential resource for educators, researchers, and anyone interested in innovative teaching methods that go beyond traditional approaches.

In our rapidly evolving "complexponential" world, where complexity and exponential change intersect, traditional leadership models are failing us. Drawing profound wisdom from nature's patterns and ancient Taoist principles, The Four Forces reveals how emergent generative team leadership can transform teams and organizations. Self-organizing, autonomous teams exercise this team-led leadership close to stakeholders where responsive decisions matter most.

At the heart of this revolutionary approach lie four fundamental forces that mirror nature's own organizing principles. When team members align with intent, clear purpose that guides without constraining, they create space for authentic emergence. Through hope, they cultivate resilience and possibility thinking that enables teams to navigate uncertainty with confidence. Care becomes the nurturing force that allows individual talents to flourish while maintaining collective coherence. And love emerges as the binding energy that creates unshakeable connection, trust, and commitment.

Perhaps most critically, this book illuminates how relationships become the stabilizing anchor in our turbulent times. Just as ecosystems derive their resilience from interconnected webs of relationship, teams that prioritize authentic human connection find stability amid chaos. These relational foundations do not constrain change, they enable it, creating the psychological safety and mutual trust necessary for true innovation and adaptation.

The Four Forces offers leaders a pathway beyond command-and-control toward something far more powerful: the ability to ignite collective intelligence, foster genuine collaboration, and create organizations that thrive in complexity rather than merely survive it. This is leadership that works with life's natural flow rather than against it.

The swift ascent of digital technologies has heralded a new era of transformation, particularly evident in the realms of travel and accommodation. Destination Data: Charting the Course for Transformative Travel Experiences is a pioneering anthology, meticulously curated from a myriad of global perspectives. In a world increasingly entwined with the digital landscape, this collaborative effort unfolds as an indispensable guide to the sweeping changes reshaping the industry.

At its core, this publication aims to serve as an essential compass in the dynamic intersection of technology with travel and accommodation. The chapters offer readers a comprehensive roadmap through the profound alterations spurred by the rapid ascent of digital technologies. More than a mere collection; it functions as a strategic guidepost, presenting insights, strategies, and diverse viewpoints from authors across the globe.

Distinguished by its innovative research, this publication offers both pioneering insights and a holistic view of the transformative fusion of technology with the travel and accommodation sectors. Beyond conventional explorations, it delivers a fresh and thorough comprehension of the ongoing digital revolution.

Advances in Digital Technology and Data-Driven Business Practices examines the possibilities, challenges and ethics of a range of technologies applied in business, including: Metaverse, Marketing Automation, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Analytics and Data Analysis, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Adopting and adapting to these technologies is essential for staying competitive and effectively reaching target audiences.

Given the rapidly evolving global education landscape, characterized by technological advancements, shifts in educational policies, socio-political transformations, and increasing emphasis on equity and inclusion, this volume provides scholars and practitioners with a comprehensive and reflective analysis of key issues driving educational change.

The Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2024 (ARCIE 2024) advances scholarship in comparative and international education by providing a structured and comprehensive review of major developments. Specific purposes of ARCIE 2024 include: (1) synthesize key research trends by offering in-depth analyses of current debates, unresolved issues, and significant contributions in the field; (2) bridge the research-to-practice gap by identifying pathways to translate empirical findings into policy and practice in diverse educational contexts; (3) examine regional and global educational dynamics by showcasing how unique political, social, and economic factors shape education across different regions; and (4) explore emerging issues by addressing underexplored topics and methodological innovations that redefine comparative education research.

The Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2024 serves as a critical, timely contribution to the field of comparative and international education by synthesizing emerging trends, theoretical developments, and practical applications that shape education systems worldwide.

Advances in Hospitality and Leisure (AHL), a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal published annually since 2004, aims to promote seminal and innovative research outputs related to hospitality, leisure, tourism, and lifestyle. Specifically, this journal encourages researchers to investigate new research issues and problems that are critical but have been largely overlooked, while providing a forum to disseminate singular thoughts that advance empirical undertakings both theoretically and methodologically.

In a society that is still experiencing the crisis generated by the pandemic due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, aggravated also by the conflict in Ukraine, it is necessary to rethink the concept of culture, which must be declined in its factual reality of everyday life, since the cultural system and its elements not only produce relationships (meaningful interactions) but also individual and collective social action, hence the use of the term rela(c)tion in the title.

The text proposes to discuss the theme of culture and cultural processes with an innovative slant that takes into account the changes that have occurred in recent years. One thinks, for example, of the great interest in processes that lead to social justice, particularly in the Global South, and the sustainability strongly brought about by Generation Z. The authors, without omitting theoretical insights necessary for understanding the transformation of this concept, will proceed to outline the areas, dimensions and cultural processes that influence the dynamics of everyday life and that in turn influence culture itself.

The idea behind this book was to construct a reflection on culture that goes beyond the individual definitions of this concept and allows for the exploration of the processes that take place in contemporary society on different levels (individual, social, and cultural) in the unfolding of individuals' everyday lives. To sum up, the objective pursued is to provide a picture of the dynamics, but at the same time of the future challenges to be faced by the different cultural systems due to the continuous changes in society, without neglecting to highlight what may be the orientations and/or innovative models (sustainability, social justice, democratic culture, etc.) that should be pursued for the construction of a cultural system that favours the peaceful and cohesive existence of differences.

The transnational social space approach has been extensively utilized in migration studies and partly also in management studies. In the latter, a key research focus is on multinational enterprises (MNEs). This Research in the Sociology of Organizations volume reinvigorates and leverages the transnational social space approach to further develop it, addressing the role of MNEs in solving Grand Challenges.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach by drawing on ideas outside of mainstream Organization Studies, such as Social Geography, Migration Studies, Political Economy, Economic Sociology, and International Business, papers take on the challenge of addressing ‘wicked problems’ like climate change, poverty, health, and inequality.

Applying the transnational social space idea as an ‘envelop framework’, the papers broaden the scope of theorizing from various theoretical angles and disciplines and enlarge the empirical scope to fields where the MNE is not automatically the central unit of study. Also, paying attention to whether and how MNEs can shape and, in some cases, distort transnational social spaces as powerful players, the papers, taken together, investigate when, why, and how MNEs can be seen as part of the problem or the solution to grand challenges.

Management Accounting Innovations in the Era of Digitalization and Sustainability offers a timely and in-depth exploration of how organizations are transforming their management accounting practices to meet the dual demands of digital transformation and sustainability. This book investigates the integration of Management Accounting Innovations (MAIs) into key decision-making processes such as planning, control, monitoring, and performance measurement. Drawing on original survey data and comparative analysis across economic contexts, it examines the challenges companies face, the roles of various stakeholders, and the strategies used to implement MAIs effectively in a rapidly evolving business environment.

Bridging theory and practice, this scholarly work provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the evolution, adoption, and impact of MAIs in the digital age. It highlights the interplay between technological advancement, sustainability imperatives, and financial strategy, offering actionable insights for academics, practitioners, and students alike. With its rigorous research and global perspective, the book serves as a vital resource for those seeking to enhance their strategic financial capabilities and drive sustainable value creation in contemporary organizations.

Leading the Transition toward Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Schools brings together the latest educational research and powerful first-person narratives to explore how culturally responsive and sustaining practices can reshape K–12 education for the better.

This timely and essential volume highlights the work of school principals, teacher leaders, student and parent advocates, district administrators, and external consultants who are actively leading change in their communities. Each section pairs research-based chapters with authentic testimonials, followed by expert analysis that draws out key themes and actionable insights. Together, these voices offer a rich, multidimensional portrait of what it takes to create inclusive learning environments.

Leading the Transition toward Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Schools offers a roadmap for navigating systemic challenges with courage, care, and a commitment to justice. A vital resource for practitioners and students of educational leadership, this book charts a path toward schools where all students can thrive.

Leading the Transition toward Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Schools brings together the latest educational research and powerful first-person narratives to explore how culturally responsive and sustaining practices can reshape K–12 education for the better.

This timely and essential volume highlights the work of school principals, teacher leaders, student and parent advocates, district administrators, and external consultants who are actively leading change in their communities. Each section pairs research-based chapters with authentic testimonials, followed by expert analysis that draws out key themes and actionable insights. Together, these voices offer a rich, multidimensional portrait of what it takes to create inclusive learning environments.

Leading the Transition toward Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Schools offers a roadmap for navigating systemic challenges with courage, care, and a commitment to justice. A vital resource for practitioners and students of educational leadership, this book charts a path toward schools where all students can thrive.

The Road to Neofeudalism anchors its enquiry on the novel concept of neofeudalism that has surfaced to center stage across the fields of media and communication, Internet studies, critical policy studies and political theory. Through an in-depth analysis of neofeudalism using empirical research, Patelis examines the Greek political party Syriza—the embodiment of collective subjectivity. Critical discussions dissect the link between Syriza and social movements, revealing its neofeudalist politics. Unpublished research spanning 2015 to 2023 sheds light on Syriza’s rise, fall, and pivotal role in Western debates.

Situating the rise of Syriza and Greece within a broader context, chapters analyze telecommunications deregulation, market domination, and the influence of GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) in social movements. Dissecting Syriza’s winning 2015 digital campaign, Patelis presents original research on their communication strategies and the tools employed—political content marketing, targeting, and social media metrics.

The Road to Neofeudalism is essential reading for both postgraduate and undergraduate students who study politics, digital media, and communication practices. It is also relevant to social media researchers, especially those with an interest in issues of privacy, surveillance and self-presentation online.

Literature reviews play a crucial role in advancing scholarly understanding by organizing, synthesizing, and critiquing the vast body of existing knowledge. They provide researchers and practitioners with comprehensive insights into current developments, highlight gaps in the research, and suggest pathways for future exploration. As the landscape of business and management continues to evolve rapidly, literature reviews become invaluable in helping to navigate these changes by offering a clear view of where the field stands and where it is heading.

Volume 5 of Review of Management Literature focuses on reviewing the latest trends in management literature, offering an in-depth exploration of contemporary topics shaping management thought and practice, particularly in three core areas: human resource management, sustainability, and technology.

The contributions included in the volume serve as a valuable reference, advancing both theory and practice in management.

Sustainable development is a dynamic field with continuous advancements. However, it also faces emerging challenges that require sparks of innovation to address them. There is a need to innovate and rethink solutions to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) by 2030.

To both inspire and educate, the editors have brought together a collection of case studies and systematic literature reviews on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that examine innovative social science, business, governance, and environmental policy practices to offer actionable insights for achieving global goals. Going beyond merely defining the 17 SDGs; the book examines the multifaceted ways innovation can be harnessed as an enabler for their attainment. It contemplates innovation as introducing new ideas, methods, approaches, or technologies that draw upon expertise and insights from diverse fields and disciplines.

This book is an invitation to embrace innovation as the vital catalyst for achieving the SDGs. It calls individuals, business leaders, policymakers, organizations, and governments worldwide to recognize that innovation is indispensable in our quest for a sustainable future. The real-world case studies and synthesis of existing research presented in the book exhibit the potential of innovation to address critical global challenges—from poverty and climate change to education and healthcare.

Some businesses engage in "greenwashing" or "shared washing," creating a misleading eco-friendly image to deceive consumers into thinking their services are environmentally friendly. As people become more aware of their environmental impact, scrutiny of these deceptive practices in the shared economy has increased. This phenomenon skews public perception, making companies seem more environmentally conscious than they actually are.

Eco Illusions: Unmasking Greenwashing in the Shared Economy explores the trends, issues, practices, and models of greenwashing within the shared economy. This edited collection examines the strategic and operational tactics that companies use to promote misleading environmental claims and create eco-friendly images that may not reflect reality. Authors analyse how shared economy businesses employ greenwashing strategies to present themselves as environmentally conscious, even when their actions contradict their claims. The collection provides recommendations for establishing credible Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards and legal regulations. It also offers practical advice to stakeholders on how to verify green claims and encourages companies to adopt ethical practices and greater transparency in their operations.

By equipping readers with knowledge and practical tools to identify misleading environmental claims, Eco Illusions empowers stakeholders to advocate for more authentic and transparent business practices in the shared economy.

In an era where sustainable development is paramount, higher education stands as a pivotal force in shaping the future of international development. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) explores the profound influence of higher education as a hub for human capital building, emphasising the necessity of integrating sustainability principles into academic curricula.

Since the 1980s, sustainable development has emerged as a critical issue on the international policy-making agenda. However, the diverse interests and agendas of various stakeholders have rendered sustainable development an evolving and contested concept. Exploring the three interrelated pillars of sustainable development, economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental preservation, the chapters present international case studies, highlighting the fragmented yet crucial literature on policy-making in ESD within the global higher education sector.

This book offers a comprehensive examination of how the higher education sector navigates the complexities of sustainable development. It is an essential read for educators, policymakers, and anyone invested in the future of sustainable development in higher education.

Late Working Life in Four European Countries sheds new light on the role of life course factors on circumstances in late working life, including the impact of exclusion and inequalities on opportunities to prolong employment.

Focusing on Germany, Poland, Sweden and the UK, it distils the key findings from each country, delivering an up-to-date comparative analysis of the policies in the four contrasting countries. Enabling the development of best practice recommendations in relation to Extended Working Lives (EWLs) to inform policy discussions and developments and taking a life course approach to considering EWLs, chapters argue there is a tendency for policies to be too simplistic and cross-sectional, failing to sufficiently engage with the need to develop a systematic long-term life course focused approach to policy design. While the general impact of EWL policies on labour force participation among older workers has been explored, limited attention has been paid to the heterogeneous nature of this demographic group and the implications of their diverse life course experiences. Providing national case studies regarding EWLs policies and inequalities therein, these examples expose hidden inequalities among older workers and how these can be addressed.

Demonstrating the need to look beyond notions of late working lives in isolation and to explore the impact of longer-term life course orientated experiences, this collection addresses a major gap in the academic literature in social policy, employment, and ageing.

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) reshaping how businesses operate, the integration of intelligent technologies into Knowledge Management (KM) processes offers new opportunities for optimizing data-driven decision-making and enhancing organizational performance.

AI-Driven Knowledge Management Assets, Volumes 1 and 2 explore KM as a critical element of business strategy and managerial practice, especially in an era of rapid AI adoption. Authors examine KM’s foundational and advanced aspects through a managerial lens, highlighting how AI is reshaping contemporary KM practices, and delve into traditional KM strategies and cutting-edge AI applications. Each chapter is enriched with case studies and empirical research that showcase the real-world benefits and challenges of integrating AI into KM. From uncovering the theoretical underpinnings of KM to examining AI-driven innovations that create competitive advantages, this work offers actionable insights and perspectives on future developments. Authors address ethical, sustainability and managerial issues, equipping readers with the tools to navigate the complexities of AI-infused KM practices.

Providing a valuable resource for business leaders, academics, and students, these volumes support those looking to integrate AI into KM to drive strategic decision-making and operational efficiency. Merging traditional knowledge management practices with the latest AI advancements, they prepare readers to harness technology for innovative solutions, positioning their organizations for success in the modern business landscape.

Ideas always have and always will change the world, whether this be via incremental shifts in understanding or behaviour, or from the introduction of revolutionary new ways of knowing and being. Being Human presents the concept of an ideas-informed society, in which new thinking and innovation drive decision-making and citizens are encouraged to engage in and actively participate in this process.

Chris Brown and Ruth Luzmore present a practice-orientated manifesto that details what is needed to actualise an ideas-informed world, and the role of education systems and policymakers in facilitating an increasingly happier, healthier, smarter and more fulfilled society.

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) reshaping how businesses operate, the integration of intelligent technologies into Knowledge Management (KM) processes offers new opportunities for optimizing data-driven decision-making and enhancing organizational performance.

AI-Driven Knowledge Management Assets, Volumes 1 and 2 explore KM as a critical element of business strategy and managerial practice, especially in an era of rapid AI adoption. Authors examine KM’s foundational and advanced aspects through a managerial lens, highlighting how AI is reshaping contemporary KM practices, and delve into traditional KM strategies and cutting-edge AI applications. Each chapter is enriched with case studies and empirical research that showcase the real-world benefits and challenges of integrating AI into KM. From uncovering the theoretical underpinnings of KM to examining AI-driven innovations that create competitive advantages, this work offers actionable insights and perspectives on future developments. Authors address ethical, sustainability and managerial issues, equipping readers with the tools to navigate the complexities of AI-infused KM practices.

Providing a valuable resource for business leaders, academics, and students, these volumes support those looking to integrate AI into KM to drive strategic decision-making and operational efficiency. Merging traditional knowledge management practices with the latest AI advancements, they prepare readers to harness technology for innovative solutions, positioning their organizations for success in the modern business landscape.

As cities evolve to meet the demands of the 21st century, the concept of "smart cities" has gained significant traction. While much of the discourse focuses on digitalization and the role of information and communication technology (ICT), the fundamental impact of architecture and design in shaping sustainable and user-friendly environments is often overlooked. The built environment, which includes its structures, interiors, and public spaces, plays a crucial role in determining how livable and adaptable a city truly is.

Design and Architecture for Sustainable, Resilient, and User-Friendly Cities and Interiors inserts itself into this ongoing debate by shifting the focus away from technology as the primary driver of smart urban development. Instead, this volume explores how architecture and design serve as the foundation for creating cities that are not only smart but also livable, sustainable, and adaptable to future challenges. Divided into three parts, the authors of this collected edtion examine contemporary design and architectural principles, innovative approaches to sustainable product development, and case studies that highlight the intersection of design, user experience, and urban resilience. By centering infrastructure and spatial planning in discussions on smart cities, this edited collection offers a fresh and necessary perspective that redefines the role of design in urban evolution.

Bringing together scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplines, this volume is an essential resource for architects, urban planners, designers, and policymakers seeking to create cities that prioritize both technological advancement and human well-being. Addressing critical gaps in existing literature, this work provides a new framework for understanding how the built environment contributes to the future of sustainable urban living.

In England and Wales, the controversial decision was made to add American XL Bully-type dogs to the prohibited breeds list of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. The XL Bully Ban is the first book on this topic that explores the impacts on caregivers and, uniquely, their exempted dogs.

Informed by a critical review of breed-specific legislation, the authors highlight the lack of consideration of the impacts of the XL Bully ‘ban’ on caregivers and exempted dogs themselves. By delving into these impacts, which include financial, emotional, practical, and quality-of-life issues, and giving voice to caregivers and companion animals, this book contributes towards building an evidence-base that can be considered in relation to future global debates. Considering alternative methods of reducing dog attacks, the authors draw out the implications of their findings for policymakers as well the wider, international debate on breed-specific legislation.

The first book written on this contemporary topic, this is cutting edge reading for scholars interested in human-animal interactions, issues of species justice, sentience and victimology, breed specific legislation, and harm-reduction. It is also of interest to practitioners and advocates working with those affected by the ban, and policymakers as they consider how to respond to continued reports of dog attacks.

Putting Institutional Theory to Work During Times of Crisis addresses a persistent challenge in management research: bridging the gap between rigorous theory and practical application. Despite the perceived complexity of institutional theory, this collection shows how it offers valuable insights for practitioners navigating organizational and societal crises.

Revisiting James D. Thompson's (1956) vision of administrative science as an applied field, the editors assert that institutional theory can guide decision-makers in understanding and responding to challenges from eroding democratic institutions to climate change. With papers divided into two sections, Section A foregrounds institutions themselves, examining the practical implications of institutional dynamics; and Section B focuses on activities within and around institutions, exploring the implications of extended institutional forces. Contributing authors identify relevant stakeholders, specify actionable strategies, and delineate appropriate contexts for application. By synthesizing seemingly disparate studies, the papers present a cohesive narrative about the practical value of institutional theory in addressing contemporary crises.

Illuminating the complex interplay between actors, practices, and institutional contexts, Putting Institutional Theory to Work During Times of Crisis provides a nuanced understanding of how change can be affected within structural constraints. This work demonstrates how institutional theory can fulfil its potential as both a rigorous academic pursuit and a valuable guide for real-world decision-making.

Written from an equitable data perspective, Questioning Technology: Addressing Divisive Data in Research and Practice translates the pressing challenges within data collection, data categorization and data commercialisation to enable researchers, SMEs, and practitioners to better question why and how they use data.

Offering an alternative that diverges from the current narrative of subjective ethics, this guide affords authentic perspective and confidence to respectively question the function of technology and the intensity of data collection, the ethics of data use, data collection risks and mitigation, data commercialisation, and the impact this has on digital policy. Split into three parts, the first part of the guide introduces the concepts surrounding digital inclusion, data dignity, technical language and the way in which humans are part of the digital ecosystem. The second part discusses and elaborates on the challenges within data collection, data categorization and commercialisation. The third part of the guide focuses on existing and recent policy progression around data and AI and to what degree this knowledge can be applied in the digital and physical realm.

Through a shared and accurate technological language informed by clear and equitable digital terminology and characteristics, O’Higgins and Halliday call for a step-change that can be used in industry and academia to bridge the language and knowledge gap for aligned collaboration through accessibility towards true digital equity.

Universities are in a unique position to be agents of change in their communities and to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This edited collection features an up-to-date collection of in-depth case studies from universities in the MENA region, as well as comparative global cases, which demonstrate the impact of higher education on the SDG agenda.

Addressing an important gap in otherwise limited and fragmented literature on the MENA region, this collection provides a comprehensive overview of the role of universities in achieving the SDGs in the MENA region – showcasing specific initiatives, case studies, policies and research efforts from a wide range of universities in the region. The chapters focus on themes such as the role of universities in achieving the SDGs, how universities integrate sustainability goals into their strategic plans, the challenges that universities face in implementing the SDGs, SDG implementation differences between developed and developing countries, partnerships between universities and other stakeholders in order to achieve the SDGs, and assessment of the methodology and impact of Times Higher Education's Impact Ranking on university strategies to achieve the SDGs.

Highlighting and celebrating examples of good practices and effective strategies from different universities and providing practical recommendations and policy suggestions, this is a roadmap for higher education institutions to engage in community and international development work. It serves as a reference for faculty and students in higher education institutions around the world, as well as practitioners in the field of community engagement.

At a time when concerns about sexual violence, online harms and the efficacy of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) frameworks are at the forefront of public discourse, this book offers a timely and necessary intervention. Presenting the concept of ‘safe uncertainty’ as a transformative framework for understanding adolescent intimacies and relationships, authors Setty and Hunt critique current deficit models in relationships and sex education in place of a more nuanced engagement with digital intimacies, online sexual learning and sex media, healthy relationships, gender and consent.

Traditional approaches to RSE, while well-intentioned, can reduce complex social and emotional dynamics to simplistic binaries, leaving young people ill-equipped to navigate the inherent ambivalences and ambiguities of intimacy and relationality. Drawing on original research and case studies from the authors’ practice, this text demonstrates how safe uncertainty acknowledges ambiguity and ambivalence as integral parts of relationships and intimacy and involves creating environments where young people can explore their perspectives and experiences without fear of judgment or rigid moral or legal solutions. Aligned with a broader need for relational, developmental and contextual approaches to understanding adolescent intimacies, Setty and Hunt explore how this framework encourages educators, policymakers and researchers to move beyond knowledge-transfer models and instead focus on equipping young people with the skills to navigate uncertainty in ways that promote emotional resilience and ethical decision-making as sexual citizens.

Connecting the concept of safe uncertainty with critical debates on consent, gender and digital culture, this timely contribution bridges gaps between research, practice and policy on both a national and an international scale.

A network analysis that ignores social harm is merely a technical exercise. A social critique that ignores the network is incomplete. Navigating the Web of Disinformation closes this critical gap.

Mariann Hardey and Wasim Ahmed offer a vital socio-technical examination of digital falsehoods, using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to connect the mechanics of digital diffusion to their real-world consequences. The result is a powerful visual and analytical account of how digital manipulation directly fuels social instability. As a critical contribution to the field, this book equips researchers and policymakers with a practical method to not only identify false information but to understand its social impact, proposing grounded solutions to defend the integrity of public discourse.

A vital contribution to the field, this publication equips policymakers, researchers, and practitioners with the insights needed to mitigate the spread of false information.

Utilising personal narratives and theoretical frameworks, International Student Experiences in Australian Higher Education critically explores the academic hurdles, cultural adjustments, and job prospects of Chinese and Indian International Master's students as they live, study and work in Australia.

Uniquely combining autoethnographic narratives with theoretical frameworks such as the Life-long Life-wide Learning Ecology Framework, each chapter offers a deep exploration of various facets of international student experiences from a different perspective, addressing issues like academic writing challenges, cultural acculturation, employability concerns, and the transition from student to teacher-researcher. The book's originality lies in its focus on personal narratives, which provide a nuanced understanding of the challenges and aspirations of international students, coupled with theoretical discussions that contextualise these experiences within broader educational frameworks. By bringing together diverse voices and perspectives, the book offers a comprehensive exploration of the complexities of international education.

Notably, the book aligns with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal for Quality Education by amplifying student voices and offering strategic recommendations for policymakers and institutions. By prioritising student representation and providing a valuable resource for academics and policymakers, this research is a significant contribution to the fields of international education and higher education policy.

Educational Embodiments: Life Writing the Body focuses on life writing that centers body politics and embodiment in educational spaces. The aim of the book is to consider, examine, and voice the lived, fleshy, textured body as a site of politics, a site of embodied educative experiences, and a site of learning and teaching. Researchers and educators alike have long championed the disembodied researcher and teacher as the ideal collectors and vehicles for knowledge production and emphasized the intellect over the body in pedagogies, analyses, and fieldwork. We are always enfleshed in diverse ways in various locales, always changing, moving, becoming, aging, singing, aching, growing, becoming marred and scarred and stronger and bigger, and smaller again. We are embodied with others, interacting with other body-mind-souls that awaken interrelational proxemics and kinesthetic experiences.

Educational Embodiments offers perspectives from which scholars, teachers, and students can draw to support their work. The 14 chapters in this collection attend to national, international, and local concerns, include varied theoretical and methodological approaches, and reflect a range of class, ethnic, and racial heritages. Chapters consider practical, theoretical, ethical, and educational issues. The authors include established and emerging scholars. The book sparks conversation, debate, and reflection and is a valuable resource that inspires scholarship about how embodied intersections shape the life-writing inquiry process.

Kindness Through Africentricity: Living as Caring Human Beings draws on Africentric philosophy, the principles of Ubuntu, and intersectionality to offer a groundbreaking exploration of kindness within African Nova Scotian communities. This volume challenges conventional understandings by positioning kindness not only as a moral virtue, but as a powerful and transformative force rooted in cultural, communal, and historical contexts. It bridges theory and lived experience, providing a critical Africentric perspective that invites readers to consider kindness as both a personal ethic and a communal practice.

As part of the Kindness at Work series, this interdisciplinary collection brings together scholars and community leaders of African ancestry in Nova Scotia to examine kindness through educational, organizational, and cultural lenses. It offers practical strategies for implementing Africentricity in education and community contexts, while also contributing to the growing but still underexplored field of kindness in management and organizational studies. By centering African Nova Scotian voices and experiences, Kindness Through Africentricity expands the theoretical scope of kindness and reclaims it as a valuable, strategic, and culturally grounded approach to leadership, learning, and community-building.

This volume contains two Open Access chapters.

Organizational Resilience: Interdisciplinary Insights explores the interplay between resilience and neighboring concepts like crisis management, power, paradoxes, hybridity, sustainability and more. A curated collection of contributions from leading figures in these areas, authors acknowledge the multifaceted ways in which resilience is both used and misused both by scientific audiences and practitioners, investigate the inner and outer boundaries underpinning resilience as a social and organizational phenomenon and advance a comprehensive and inclusive research agenda that considers the novelty emerging from collaborations across adjoining fields.

There is clear evidence that teacher work is increasingly unsustainable, leading to an impact on health and well-being, and sector-wide and international challenges such as teacher retention and recruitment. Leadership, Organisation and the Sustainability of Teacher Work focuses on the intersections between educational leadership, organisational processes, well-being and how these relate to concerns regarding teacher work, workload and the sustainability of the profession.

Amidst the performative pressures on teachers, the authors explain that central to all these issues is the process of leadership and its embedded nature within organisations. Leaders play an important role in developing positive workplace environments in which teachers can thrive, but their work is part of a wider flow of activities which constitute the essential nature of organisations and hence teacher work. By advocating a view of leadership, organisation and teacher work as complex, intertwined tangles of processes, this book begins to sketch out an alternative perspective for understanding educational organisations and how the work of teachers might be made sustainable.

Leadership, Organisation and the Sustainability of Teacher Work argues for the need to understand leaders and leadership as part of a wider network of processes and relationships so as to draw out the complexity of the work involved for all within educational organisations. Drawing on organisational sciences, sociology, psychology and education research, it is offered for reflection and challenge to scholars in those fields interested in a sustainable future for the teaching profession.

Industry Transformation: Strategies for Digital Innovation and AI Adoption Technologies offers a timely and comprehensive guide to navigating the evolving landscape of digital transformation across industries. As organisations face mounting pressure to adapt to technological disruption and shifting market demands, this timely work provides a strategic framework for integrating artificial intelligence, big data, IoT, blockchain, and cybersecurity into business operations. Drawing on real-world case studies and actionable insights, it bridges the gap between theory and practice, equipping readers with the tools to lead successful digital initiatives.

Beyond the technical dimensions, the authors address the ethical and regulatory considerations essential to responsible AI adoption. With a balanced focus on both innovation and human-centric approaches, it empowers executives, managers, policymakers, and academics to foster sustainable growth in the digital age. By synthesising cutting-edge research and industry expertise Industry Transformation serves as an indispensable resource for those seeking to unlock the full potential of digital innovation in their sectors.

During the 2010s, the body positivity movement experienced a meteoric rise in mainstream recognition. It became a cultural phenomenon, generating celebrities, boosts in industries and a modest body diversity in popular media representation. However, body positivity’s celebration was not without critique, as its popularity grew, criticisms relating to the types of bodies that became the focus of body positivity demonstrated the movement’s shortcomings and complexities.

The Body Positivity Movement: A Story of ‘Acceptable’ Fatness investigates the contemporary body positivity movement, its triumphs and its shortcomings. Using memoirs and life writing from activists, body positive advocates, and her own personal recollections, author Gemma Gibson traces body positive activities and practices through the fat activist movement in the UK and North America. The Body Positive Movement demonstrates how body positivity has been an important tool for many fat activists, but also how the movement has been vulnerable to political dilution in mainstream media, advertising and social media.

This research uses an activist perspective to explore body positivity through the lens of fat activism. This thought-provoking work has resonance in Sociology, Cultural Studies, Fat Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. Students, instructors and activists will find The Body Positivity Movement useful for exploring body positivity and popular feminism.

Contesting Platform Power explores the practices and discourses of data activists, by shifting the focus from critical digital studies to critical platform studies through the theoretical lens of affordances, to understand the material means by which activist’s software and applications strives to empower users through data control.

Papa critically explores the ways platform affordances, actions associated to the features of the platform which might be hidden or perceptible to the user, can create the possibilities for both action and constraint, but it ultimately rests upon users to either comply or resist. Platform affordances in this study are not to be conflated with specific features of the platform such as shares, clicks or reaction buttons, but refers the communicative practices and habits they allow or refuse to users within a technological space.

An innovative contribution to the field of critical platform studies, chapters explore the theoretical underpinnings of affordances to sow the seeds for further critical analysis into the software and applications of data activists, while also suggesting a new typology that can aid researchers in identifying and analysing such practices. Featuring case studies of data activists’ examples, Papa demonstrates that such efforts can be used in a tactical manner by users to counter the hegemonic power of corporate platforms and AI.

Educational Embodiments: Life Writing the Body focuses on life writing that centers body politics and embodiment in educational spaces. The aim of the book is to consider, examine, and voice the lived, fleshy, textured body as a site of politics, a site of embodied educative experiences, and a site of learning and teaching. Researchers and educators alike have long championed the disembodied researcher and teacher as the ideal collectors and vehicles for knowledge production and emphasized the intellect over the body in pedagogies, analyses, and fieldwork. We are always enfleshed in diverse ways in various locales, always changing, moving, becoming, aging, singing, aching, growing, becoming marred and scarred and stronger and bigger, and smaller again. We are embodied with others, interacting with other body-mind-souls that awaken interrelational proxemics and kinesthetic experiences.

Educational Embodiments offers perspectives from which scholars, teachers, and students can draw to support their work. The 14 chapters in this collection attend to national, international, and local concerns, include varied theoretical and methodological approaches, and reflect a range of class, ethnic, and racial heritages. Chapters consider practical, theoretical, ethical, and educational issues. The authors include established and emerging scholars. The book sparks conversation, debate, and reflection and is a valuable resource that inspires scholarship about how embodied intersections shape the life-writing inquiry process.

This book contains an Open Access Chapter.

Latinas represent one of the fastest-growing populations in the US, yet Latina faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers remain underrepresented. Advancing Latinas in STEM Academic Careers shares ideas, strategies, and best practices in the following areas: (1) work-life issues, policies/practices, mentoring, and climate that affect the pathways/pipelines, recruitment, retention, and advancement/leadership of Latinas in academic STEM careers; (2) challenges and opportunities for STEM Latinas across faculty rank and within and outside academia; (3) best practices and lessons learned in the recruitment and advancement of STEM Latinas; (4) intersectionality issues, particularly those related to gender and ethnic diversity in STEM; and (5) pipeline/pathways for advancing Latinas in STEM.

Academic research in STEM is often conducted without the perspectives of members of underrepresented groups, including Latinas. An increase in the number and representation of underrepresented minorities and women in STEM has the capacity to build more informed public policy formulation, discussion, and implementation. Having an inclusive STEM faculty that advances Latinas exposes students to a range of perspectives and experiences, counters stereotypes students might have about Latinas and BIPOC populations, strengthens the pipeline for Latina/o students, and prepares non-Latina/o students to work productively in an increasingly diverse and competitive workforce. The audience for this book includes researchers in STEM equity and Latina/o studies, college and university administrators, and faculty, especially Hispanic Serving Institutions seeking knowledge, best practices, and resources for advancing Latinas in STEM academic careers.

Although substantial research has been conducted on Artificial Intelligence (AI), environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, and the rise of tokenized assets individually, there remains a gap in literature which analyzes how these topics and trends overlap and are influence each other. Professionals and scholars alike continue to face a shortage of practically oriented books and content with either technical or purely conceptual writings and content dominating market share.

In Artificial Intelligence, ESG Investments and The Future of Tokenized Assets, award winning researcher and academic Sean Stein Smith addresses this gap, offering a rapid, accessible guide to the intersections and implications of these transformative technologies. Covering topics from AI utilization by financial institutions and professionals for both quantity and quality of data reporting, to the implications of these changes for accounting, finance, and economics professionals needing to contend with an AI-driven tokenized financial landscape, Stein Smith dives into the future of transformative technologies, with examples, resources, and places where readers can learn more will be embedded within every chapter.

Academics and practitioners can discover actionable business intelligences to enable both an understanding and implementation of technologies such as AI, and tokenization across business and service lines.

This book contains an Open Access Chapter.

Latinas represent one of the fastest-growing populations in the US, yet Latina faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers remain underrepresented. Advancing Latinas in STEM Academic Careers shares ideas, strategies, and best practices in the following areas: (1) work-life issues, policies/practices, mentoring, and climate that affect the pathways/pipelines, recruitment, retention, and advancement/leadership of Latinas in academic STEM careers; (2) challenges and opportunities for STEM Latinas across faculty rank and within and outside academia; (3) best practices and lessons learned in the recruitment and advancement of STEM Latinas; (4) intersectionality issues, particularly those related to gender and ethnic diversity in STEM; and (5) pipeline/pathways for advancing Latinas in STEM.

Academic research in STEM is often conducted without the perspectives of members of underrepresented groups, including Latinas. An increase in the number and representation of underrepresented minorities and women in STEM has the capacity to build more informed public policy formulation, discussion, and implementation. Having an inclusive STEM faculty that advances Latinas exposes students to a range of perspectives and experiences, counters stereotypes students might have about Latinas and BIPOC populations, strengthens the pipeline for Latina/o students, and prepares non-Latina/o students to work productively in an increasingly diverse and competitive workforce. The audience for this book includes researchers in STEM equity and Latina/o studies, college and university administrators, and faculty, especially Hispanic Serving Institutions seeking knowledge, best practices, and resources for advancing Latinas in STEM academic careers.

Active and Engaging Classrooms: A Practical Exploration of P-12 School Contexts empowers educators to transform their classrooms into vibrant spaces where students actively lead their own learning. This edited volume explores how teachers can design and facilitate learning environments that promote student agency, curiosity, and collaboration. It emphasizes that active and engaging learning is not accidental—it requires intentional planning, responsive teaching, and a deep understanding of how students learn best.

The book offers practical strategies for creating classroom climates that support meaningful participation, including classroom management techniques, systems thinking, and the importance of trust in student-teacher relationships. It also explores how active learning connects with multicultural education and Culturally Responsive Teaching, providing inclusive approaches that resonate with diverse learners. Real-world examples include project-based learning, dual-enrollment courses, problem-solving games, and the integration of multimedia and AI.

Designed for both new and experienced educators, as well as teacher educators, this collection provides a comprehensive look at how to cultivate classrooms where students are not just engaged—but empowered. Whether you're refining your teaching practice or preparing future educators, this book offers the tools and insights needed to foster dynamic, student-centered learning environments.