Böcker utgivna av Palgrave MacMillan

Rationality has been philosophers' concern stretching back to ancient times. But just what is rationality? In trying to answer this question, rationality is found to be more complex than supposed. This book investigates this supposition and thereby aspires to bring together the facets of the peculiar phenomenon that is rationality. Rationality is shown to be both more complex than presumed and yet more accessible than many may have feared. One argument concedes the common assumption that those interested in rationality need only rely on intuitions about this phenomenon. Yet, even moderate research reveals the concept's profound fuzziness. This book aims to set forth a theory, explanation, and unification of the kindred and disparate understandings of this elusive concept, rationality.

This book examines the progress of institutionalisation of evaluation in Asia Pacific from various perspectives. It presents prior developments and current states of evaluation in 11 countries, focusing on three dimensions, namely the political, social and professional systems. These detailed country reports, which have been written by selected researchers and authors of the respective countries, lead to a concluding comparison and synthesis. This is the third of four volumes of the compendium The Institutionalisation of Evaluation. The first volume on Europe was published in 2020, and the second volume on the Americas in 2022. It will be followed by another volume on Africa. The overall aim is to provide an interdisciplinary audience with cross-country learning to enable them to better understand the institutionalisation of evaluation in different nations, world regions and sectors.

The distinctive point of the book is its innovative interdisciplinary approach to business communication, with interconnections between linguistics, sociology, and critical organisational studies as applied to the corporate world. It offers a first-hand insight into primary business discourse with a deeper understanding and analysis of business processes and mechanisms underlying and reflected in enterprise software-mediated communication. It answers the question what 'doing business' in the digital age is about and illustrates 'business discourse' from practitioners' point of view.Grounded in the analysis of empirical data, pertaining both to internal and external business communication, the author reflects on the reality of accelerated and pressurised communication in global IT corporations. Following a communication-centred approach, this monograph puts the topic of enterprise software-mediated business discourse into a multi-layered perspective of how global corporations operate, what their primary goals are, and what kind of (political) power they execute. Moreover, it demonstrates how profit-driven corporations can be viewed and interpreted as strategically acting systems within a specific sociological framework.

This book examines qualitatively and quantitatively the exploitation of Africa through six centuries of colonialism and imperialism. The contributions build on previous qualitative analyses. The chapters introduce new ways to measure some of the coerced income and wealth transfers to Europe and North America through systematic underpayments and overcharges. This wealth was wrongfully accumulated using many forms of their abuse of dominance. The book provides estimates that will be helpful to understanding the growing debate on "reparations." This also contributes to rethinking international development assistance policy. It helps establish a basis for improved estimates of the gains from past and current practices that worked against African economic, social, and political institutions and systems. This edited volume showcases a variety of scholars with diverse perspectives and establishes, for the first time, the extent of wrongful benefits and damages from 600 years of international harm to the African continent.

This book illuminates the complex relationship between social media, identity, and youth in the Global South. By examining the profound impact on the psychosocial well-being and economic prospects of young people across diverse regions, the collection present empirical evidence from scholars spanning Asia, Africa, North America, Central, and South America.Contributors show how young people experience adverse side-effects online, such as social withdrawal, or animosity to others, and how good social health and social media use can help young people develop economic resources, become independent, and socially responsible. Additionally, the book explores the role of social media channels, such as Facebook and Instagram, in the rise of cyberbullying, sexting, and online radicalization; how these platforms re-negotiate identity in developing countries and compromise productivity; and how the behaviour of celebrities on said platforms influence youth behaviour.Structured into five thematic sections, this book presents a nuanced understanding of the well-being implications arising from social media use among young people hailing from diverse socio-cultural and economic backgrounds and political exigencies.

Part of a two-volume work, this book explores how businesses shape, and are shaped by, sustainability forces and phenomena. These evolutionary transformations have driven scholars, practitioners and decision makers to pay increased attention to sustainability as an integral part of business development. Consequently, and congruently, companies, organisations and governments are modifying their philosophy, processes, activities, and communications, at both the micro- and macro-foundational levels, to comply and adapt to the new realities.Reflecting the purpose of the series, both volumes offer a cross-section of multi-disciplinary perspectives within business studies. Volume 1 focuses on strategic and managerial approaches to sustainability in business, including accounts on the historic origins of sustainability and its contemporary corporate sustainable models. Volume 2 explores, more contextually, how business and social sustainability constitute indivisible and inextricable components of the same nexus. Taken together, they offer an original perspective on how businesses can help achieve the SDG goals and targets.

Camouflaged by "Covid-19," an undeclared global class war was initiated in 2020, aimed at replacing liberal democracy with technocracy, a novel, biodigital form of totalitarianism. The opening campaign involved the largest psychological operation in history, intended to demoralise, disorientate, and debilitate the public. This volume deals with the application of shock and stress, trauma-based mind control, the use of fear and threat, cognitive attack, weaponised deception, and techniques for turning society against itself. This is an open access book.

This book explores the impact of recent planning reforms on emergent, alternative models of local governance. It uses the pioneering approach of Frome in Somerset, UK to showcase development and governance alternatives in a post-Brexit landscape. It investigates the role of planning in contributing to sustainable development under localism, and examines how key actors have used the Neighbourhood Planning process to put forward niche, community-based development futures. In doing so, the book offers valuable methodological, empirical and theoretical contributions to wider debates concerning transition, placemaking, local politics and planning. It will appeal to all those interested in public policy and governance.

This is the first book to frame U.S. public diplomacy in the broad sweep of American diplomatic practice from the early colonial period to the present. It tells the story of how change agents in practitioner communities - foreign service officers, cultural diplomats, broadcasters, citizens, soldiers, covert operatives, democratizers, and presidential aides - revolutionized traditional government-to-government diplomacy and moved diplomacy with the public into the mainstream. This deeply researched study bridges practice and multi-disciplinary scholarship. It challenges the common narrative that U.S. public diplomacy is a Cold War creation that was folded into the State Department in 1999 and briefly found new life after 9/11. It documents historical turning points, analyzes evolving patterns of practice, and examines societal drivers of an American way of diplomacy: a preference for hard power over soft power, episodic commitment to public diplomacy correlated with war and ambition, an information-dominant communication style, and American exceptionalism. It is an account of American diplomacy's public dimension, the people who shaped it, and the socialization and digitalization that today extends diplomacy well beyond the confines of embassies and foreign ministries.

This book examines the role of the Arctic in Iceland's foreign and security policies from the end of the Cold War to the present. Based on extensive research and drawing on approaches from the fields of history and international relations, it shows that Iceland's Arctic policies have gone through multiple phases during this period, all of which have been heavily influenced by external geopolitical factors including its relationship with the United States, the 2008 financial crisis, the rise of China, and the Ukrainian crisis. It also demonstrates how Iceland's strategic position in the North Atlantic has important repercussions for the United States, Russia and China. With an emphasis on geopolitics, nation branding, and governance, this book will appeal to scholars and students of Arctic policies, geopolitics and international relations.

The first volume of this three-volume resource presents a historical analysis of the practice of smoking, the rise and fall of the cigarette market, and the successes and failures of tobacco control. While taxes, regulations, and various behavioral and pharmacological interventions have helped many people to quit smoking, they have not helped everyone. The authors explain why these strategies alone are likely insufficient to elicit smoking cessation among the remaining group, and why "ramping up" these strategies may also backfire. Drawing on examples from the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, this volume introduces the technology of e-cigarettes, explaining the origins of the innovation, patterns of use among consumers, and the perception of e-cigarettes among key stakeholder groups.

This book investigates the role played by classical and digital media, and social networks in shaping debates on the environment. Providing a unique window of observation on environmental debates, the book explores the media theatre from the post-communist perspective of Albania. The work navigates the creation and development of environmental debate in Albania using evidence-based case studies, investigating the role of actors involved, who are closely related to the media, such as in business or politics. Environmental Debates in Albania offers an original insight on environmental debate, which is closely tied to and influenced by the place and culture within which it originates. Rich literature exists on global environmental issues, protests, policy and the rhetoric around climate change; this book supplies another piece to the puzzle through its focus on the under-researched area of environmental debate in post-communist and Eastern European countries.

This book is about the crises of the world economy that have occurred from the 1970s to the present day. It makes the specific case that the global economy has experienced six crises during this 50-year period. Crises of the global economy are periods of substantial slowdown in world economic activity--as measured by investment, industrial production, trade, or unemployment--in which many national economies are technically in recession. To pose the existence of crises of the global economy implies that the world economy is a real entity with its own dynamics; it implies also that the usual approach that views national economies as the appropriate units of economic analysis has major limitations. The author provides data illustrating the global and regional manifestations of these crises of the world economy, elaborates on the concepts of world economy and economic crisis, and discusses the theories that have been used to explain them. The book shows how these recurrent global crises are discrete, countable phenomena, distinct states of an entity that can be appropriately referred to as the world or global economy, or world capitalism.

This book explores questions of care in higher education. Using Joan Trontös seven signs that institutions are not caring well, the authors examine whether students and staff consider universities to be caring institutions. As such, they outline how universities systematically, structurally, and actively ¿undercare¿ when it comes to supporting students and staff, a phenomenon which was amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on scholarly ideas from the sociology of care, higher education, social justice, and feminist critique, and in dialogue with empirical insights gathered with people who work and study in universities in Australia, South Africa, and the UK, the book questions why people care, as well as why adopting a caring position in higher education can be viewed as radical. The authors conclude by asking what we can do to counter that view by thinking carefully about the purpose, power, and plurality of care, before imagining how we can create more caring universities.

This innovative book argues that establishing an ontological framework makes a substantial difference to Pierre Bourdieu's core concepts of habitus and field. In doing so it addresses the charges of determinism, tautology, and circularity that have long been directed at habitus and field. Teasing out Bourdieu's ontology, the book offers a novel critical realist reading of Bourdieu, arguing that while Bourdieu explored the epistemological basis of his key concepts, he neglects their ontological underpinnings, and that elaborating on this adds a layer of depth and complexity which enriches Bourdieu's project. In addition to articulating the synergies between Roy Bhaskar's critical realism and Bourdieu's oeuvre, this book extends Bourdieu's insights in new and exciting directions by developing an ontologically informed Bourdieusian account of institutions as explored through the lens of institutional racism and by outlining a unique methodological approach to habitus.

Based upon global data and following on from Lockdown: Social Harm in the COVID-19 Era, this book discusses the rise of surveillance capitalism and new forms of control and exclusion throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. It particularly addresses the use of vaccine passports, mandates and the new forms of capital extraction and political control that emerged throughout the pandemic. The book also explicates how the 'vaccine hesitant' became marginalized in both mainstream discourse and through regulatory interventions. Whilst the book addresses the wider political economy within which so-called 'anti-vaxxers' were ostracized, it also explores the complex nature of their sentiments. The book closes by considering The New Futures of Exclusion, outlining the forms of surveillance and control that may be implemented in the future particularly in light of the challenges brought by global warming and the energy transition. It is a broadly accessible text, particularly appealing to policymakers, general readers and academics in sociology, political sociology, politics, human geography, political economy, criminology, social policy, psychology, history, and infectious diseases and medicine.

This textbook explores sustainability, climate change, and the corporate responsibility movement from a broad array of perspectives, including the challenges, risks, and opportunities of ESG policies, energy and environmental science, economics and philosophy, and sound public and private sector management. There is no intergenerational issue that is more pressing than the challenge of sustainability and climate change. It is a concern that will only worsen within any reader's lifetime, especially if we fail to act. At the same time, there is growing concern among corporations arising from the Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) paradigm that includes climate risk, future profits, and stakeholder expectations. Many of our leading institutions also increasingly acknowledge a responsibility for corporate decisions since the onset of the Industrial Revolution that plays no small role in bringing us to the existential precipice of our day. This book provides necessary tools of sufficient sophistication to address complex intergenerational issues, such as global warming, economic justice and fairness, appropriate intergenerational planning, sustainable finance, corporate risk management, and governance. The book offers a vital resource for students, shareholders, sustainability practitioners, agencies, and advocates interested in climate action, intergenerational accountability, and economic sustainability.

This book uses the cases of Syrian factions in rebel-held areas, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Houthi in Yemen, rebels in Libya, Taliban in Afghanistan, In Iraq, and Somalia to explain the importance of examining genealogies tribalism, common local knowledge and social networks in understanding the institutionalisation of armed group governance systems. The book provides a series of studies employing heterogenous methodological approaches to address the issue using qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. The proposed project also attempts to move away from the central debate on the national political crisis trend by examining the sub-national level patterns and assessing various factors and questions that bring about clear answers regarding how de-facto rulers use tribes and tribal informal institutions to sustain their presence and create a safe social incubator.

This book examines how governments around the world responded to the health emergency created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before vaccines became available, non-medical interventions were the main means to protect the public. Non-medical interventions were put in place by governments as public health policies. In every nation, politicians and governments faced a choice situation, and worldwide, they made different choices. Public health policies came at a price, in economic, social, and ultimately electoral costs to the political incumbents. The book discusses differences in governments' policy efforts to mitigate the virus spread. The authors conduct in-depth analysis of country-cases from Africa, North and South America, Asia, and Europe. They also offer small-n- comparative analyses as well as report global patterns and trends of governments' responsiveness to the medical emergency. It will appeal to all those interested in public policy, health policy and governance.

This book analyses the European Parliament's relations with the national parliaments of the European Union, in terms of political party interactions, institutional arrangements, and two-way influence. Each of the twelve chapters on the member-states of the EU covers three main themes: the links between party-political activity at the European and national levels; the degree of cooperation between the national and the European parliaments; and the extent to which the national legislature is influenced by the EP's resolutions or other communications.

This book examines how entrepreneurship can be used as a tool to escape poverty. With relevance for both SDG 1: 'No Poverty, ' and SDG 8: 'Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, ' it pays special attention to women and minority ethnic groups. Offering a fresh perspective on entrepreneurship as a means of upward social mobility and rooted in research, the book explores the issue in three ways. Firstly, it pays special attention to the nexus between the entrepreneur, resources, institutions, opportunities, necessities, and the environment for drawing a comprehensive picture of how individuals could use entrepreneurship for successful upward social mobility in a changing world. Secondly, it emphasizes the peculiar challenges that female entrepreneurs face, how those challenges can be overcome, and how female entrepreneurship may be a route to women's socio-economic advancement. Thirdly, it highlights the challenges faced by ethnic minority business owners and how such ethnic minority businesses could thrive amid institutional voids as well as direct and indirect forms of discrimination. Based on the latest research from developed and developing countries, the book offers compelling insights for sustaining entrepreneurial ventures in an evolving world.

This book explores the disconnect between fiscal policy and macroeconomic development in South Africa. It analyses the factors that have contributed to the lack of economic growth in the country over recent decades and outlines an improved fiscal policy framework that increases investment and employment. Particular attention is given to the impact of government debt and its relationship with GDP, the connection between budget deficits and interest rates, and how economic policy uncertainty affects employment dynamics and inflation. This book provides practical fiscal policy suggestions to increase economic growth in South Africa and Africa more generally. It will be relevant to researchers and policymakers interested in African economics and economic policy.

The financial-services industry has been disrupted and roiled by a perfect storm of forces. Complex regulatory-compliance requirements, aging legacy systems, dated operating models, digital innovation and fintech have rapidly changed the environment for many financial institutions worldwide. To further amplify the challenges for financial institutions globally, various regulatory bodies across the globe have enacted major legislative changes, increasing the pressure on boards and C-level executives significantly. Unlike previous years, this new regulatory focus on anti-money laundering (AML) can be seen globally as various regulatory regimes converge closer to a global standard as promulgated by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Increasing regulatory enforcement, geopolitical changes and record-setting monetary fines have made adequate AML risk management a significant challenge for financial institutions globally. In this environment, financial institutions need to become more risk agile and move from backwards looking compliance measures to proactive risk management. This book will showcase how to transform current AML compliance efforts into more dynamic risk management solutions that help protect financial institutions against bad actors and manage regulatory risk and exposure. Based on the author's global experience in helping financial institutions to manage their AML risks in 60+ jurisdictions, this book calls for greater urgency from boards and senior management, policymakers and AML risk practitioners to address looming risks. From corporate governance structures, tone at the top, to more efficient ways to quantify and manage risks, this book addresses key changes financial institutions must make to evolve from strict compliance to an agile risk management framework that actually addresses their AML risks in practical ways and shift the mind set from a cost center to a value creation center.

This open access book draws together key research from the UK Climate Resilience programme. It focuses on topics central to the programme's research agenda, including improved characterisation and quantification of climate risks, enhanced understanding of the management of climate risks, and the development and delivery of climate services. Key chapters address the challenges inherent to undertaking resilience research, including how to make the term 'climate resilience' usable and useful, co-producing research between academics, policy makers and practitioners, and engaging and communicating outside of academia. This book is unique in providing a concise and accessible overview of the programme's key lessons, placing the findings into a wider context and it will inform future research, policy and practice agendas.

This handbook brings together global research on violence in Africa from academics, practitioners and activists across a multitude of subjects. It seeks to create the widest possible space for debate, discussion, and analysis of the broad range of issues and problems of violence. It transcends disciplinary and geographic borders in order to create new ground in this space. The chapters in this handbook cover diverse themes such as: the topography of violence, technologies of violence, terrorism, civil war and insurgent violence, child soldiers and violence, epistemic violence, structural violence, violence and memory, violence and the law, cultural mechanisms for creating, sustaining, resisting, and mitigating violence, political violence, violence in moments of religious, social and geo-political transformation, gender and violence, violence against nature, and violence and social media. It centralises new meanings, understandings and fresh ideas to the concept of violence, broadening its scope, and contributing to the debates that will shape Africa's common future. It shines a light on key elements of African culture and the cultural mechanisms for creating, sustaining, resisting, and mitigating violence in Africa. It strives to be relevant to the needs and concerns of African societies by suggesting practical solutions for overcoming violence. This book ties in with development initiatives in Africa, such as Agenda 2063, for the Africa We Want, and the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This open access book analyses the idea that medicine and psychology have a substantial (and underestimated) impact on Western welfare states. Based on mixed-methods analyses conducted in Germany, it analyses this influence on debates and policies related to unemployment, poverty, and childhood. The book demonstrates how the turn to neoliberalism and social investment thinking has created this medicalisation and psychologisation of social policies, and the contributions provide important insights for students and scholars of sociology of health and illness, political sociology, social and health policy, medicine, psychology, and public health.

This open access book presents contributions to decolonize development studies. It seeks to promote and sustain new forms of solidarity and conviviality that work towards achieving social justice.Recognising global poverty and inequalities as historic injustices, the book addresses how these can be challenged through teaching, research, and engagement in policy and practice, and the sorts of political barriers these might encounter. From a variety of perspectives and contexts, these chapters examine how decoloniality and solidarity can be developed, offering in-depth historical, theoretical, epistemological, and empirical analyses.

Cognitive linguistics is a relatively new discipline which is rapidly becoming mainstream and influential, particularly in the area of second language teaching. This book looks at how cognitive linguistics can inform our teaching, and lead to intriguing suggestions for alternative ways of presenting grammar and vocabulary in the language classroom.

Environmental sustainability has become increasingly important because of irreversible climate change, widespread environmental pollution, and dwindling resource availability over time. Organisations have recently come under more pressure due to increasing economic, political, and societal concerns to address environmental issues and improve their environmental performance. Recently, green human resource management (Green HRM), among other sustainable environmental strategies adopted by organisations, has gained popularity, yet little has been published on green HRM practices across the globe.This book develops our understanding and practice of green HRM across the globe, highlighting practices across different countries on different continents, with a particular focus on the Global South. The authors draw on various types of research (conceptual, theoretical and empirical) and incorporate contextual issues such as technology, politics, culture, and economics to supplement the readers' insights into the current state of green HRM practices across the globe. By highlighting theoretical underpinnings and emphasising the practical relevance of green HRM practices, this book offers an insightful guide for scholars and students of HRM, as well as HR professionals looking for an academic insight to this vitally important area.

This open access book is about mismanagement of public agencies as a threat to life and limb. Collapsing bridges and buildings kill people and often leave many more injured. Such disasters do not happen out of the blue nor are they purely technical in nature since construction and maintenance are subject to safety regulation and enforcement by governmental agencies. This book analyses four relevant cases from Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Germany. Arguing that, while preventing disaster through public oversight is essentially easy, the difficult part for public officials and private contractors and consultants alike is to resist incentives that threaten professional skills and standards. Rather than stressing well-known pathologies of bureaucracy as a potential source of disaster, this book argues, learning for the sake of prevention should aim at neutralizing threats to integrity and strengthening a sense of responsibility among public officials.