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The book provides a comprehensive exploration of the the evolution in sustainability reporting and non-financial disclosure from three perspectives: regulatory, literary, and empirical. First, the book discusses the variety of frameworks and standards, normative sources, and regulatory initiatives aimed at promoting and standardizing sustainability reporting at the international level. Second, the book offers a systematic review of academic literature on sustainability reporting and non-financial disclosure. Third, the book examines the concept of materiality in sustainability reporting and provides an empirical analysis of the quantity and quality of materiality disclosures in sustainability reporting across the globe. The book concludes by discussing future directions for developments in sustainability reporting research and practice, and is relevant to academics, practitioners, and students interested in the intersection of sustainability, corporate reporting, and corporate finance.

There has been a steady stream of articles written on the relations between ethics and the interpretation of literature, but there remains a need for a book that both introduces and significantly contributes to the field - particularly one that shows how we can think more openly and creatively about the multiform powers of ethical narrative by considering ethically significant literature. This volume offers an analytically acute and culturally rich way of understanding how it is that we can productively think philosophically about the narrative structures that describe our ethical lives and what kind of distinctive conceptual, and in some cases personal, progress we can make by doing so. Given the extremely widespread interest in ethical issues, this volume will strike resonant chords far and wide on arrival, while offering something new in bringing together the study of long-form narrative, the language of moral psychology, and detailed literary case studies. Given the vast expansion of narrative studies in recent years, the time for just such a volume is right.

This book reconsiders Marx's critique of political economy through the concept of labour as "not-capital" to generate a critical social theory. Engaging with thinkers who have dealt with Marx's concept of "not-capital" and "anti-value," Tetler examines whether and how the concept of labour as not-capital and not-value can contribute significantly towards a renewal of the critique of political economy beyond the limits of traditional Marxism. In doing so he provides the first in depth interrogation of these concepts, both within Marx's work itself and within and across the various intellectuals who have put them to use in their attempts to address the faults of traditional Marxism. He argues that the theory of value that sits at the heart of Marx's critique of political economy requires a negative conception of labour. He concludes that the notions of labour as not-capital and not-value are shown to have formidable ramifications concerning the crisis-ridden nature of capitalist social relations and the struggles operative within and against them.

This edited collection examines different facets of organizational communication in the context of current technological developments and disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. AI is making inroads in organizational communication practice, influencing how organizations communicate and interact with their environments. It drives, augments and supplements organizational communication. Chatbots, for example, are becoming increasingly relied upon by organizations, using them to manage basic communication tasks that used to belong solidly to the realm of human. Similarly, developments such as ChatGPT have attracted scholarly attention due to their perceived implications on various aspects of communication. All of this has a profound effect on human interactions and relationships in organizational settings. Filling a gap in scholarship around organizational communication in light of ongoing digital transformation processes and COVID-19 induced transformations, chapters provide an up-to-date account of how new communication technologies, especially AI, are transforming organizational communication. The contributions reflect upon the most current theory and practice in the field in the post-COVID era. Combining theory, applied scholarship and fresh case studies, this is a valuable resource that reflects on the new realities of today's organizational environment.

This book applies the existing literature in the scholarship of teaching and learning to political science, advising discipline-specific tips, approaches, and strategies to put immediately into practice. Keeping in mind the pace of an academic career, it also challenges the widely held misconception that being a good teacher requires a huge time investment. This book is meant for three core audiences: graduate students taking a course on teaching political science or about to embark on their first teaching experience; newly minted PhDs facing their first academic post and trying to figure out how to balance all of their new responsibilities; and veteran instructors looking to prepare a new course or revise an existing one.

This book, structured in two parts, gives a 360-degree view on integrated thinking, the foundation of integrated reporting, a rising trend in corporate reporting practice. This topic is particularly interesting in the context of new regulatory landscape, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in the EU (shaped by EFRAG's developments), alongside the IFRS Foundation's efforts towards global sustainability standards, both of which are shaping contemporary debates on sustainable value creation. The first part builds a framework for integrated thinking in a multidisciplinary perspective while the second part revises the framework in the light of practices, by bridging the gap with research findings in this field to date. The book concludes with the current shift of paradigm, and the need to address managerial questions in their complexity, building on knowledge across different specialized disciplines. The book will be of specific interest to accounting and finance teams and professional accounting bodies alongside those teaching or doing research within the fields of finance and accounting.

This edited book examines and analyses Heydar Aliyev, the architect and founder of modern, post-Soviet Azerbaijan. The editors of the volume discuss developments between 1993 and 2003 - a decade that saw the establishment of the institutional foundations of the current republic, the adoption of a new form of national identity, the redefinition of the concept of the Azerbaijani state, and the creation of a security establishment designed to gain control of territories Armenia had held since the 1988-1994 war over Karabakh. The book explains why this fateful period had far-reaching consequences for Azerbaijan as a fully formed state and society, as well as major implications for its political future and its geopolitical strategy.

This edited volume presents a multi-perspectival inquiry into the models that have shaped the study of ancient economies in past decades. The contributions collected here respond to the prevailing tendency to measure ancient Mediterranean economies using methods and techniques designed for assessing the performance of modern economies, considering a range of approaches that might generate a more socially and morally attuned history of the ancient Mediterranean. The volume explores the challenges of quantification and critically examines the ideological assumptions implicit within the models usually applied to the study of ancient economic performance. The chapters advocate for more inclusive alternatives to traditional ideas of 'growth' that take factors such as social inequality, fairness, wellbeing and the relationship between humans and the natural environment into consideration. The book examines through a series of different questions the importance of querying the appropriateness of economic methods from an ethical or socially aware position. Rather than condemning older models, methods, and points of view for their inadequacies, this book focuses on leveraging the benefits from existing methods in economics and suggesting new frameworks to reach toward historical approaches that are both methodologically sophisticated and attuned to the moral, ethical, and political concerns of the twenty-first century. This book will be a valuable resource for interdisciplinary researchers in economics, economic history, ancient history and archaeology.

In the fields of management and organization, there is an ongoing debate about different ontological assumptions about people in and around organizations, and the dangers of self-fulling prophecies, i.e., the phenomena in which unsubstantiated, unethical, or dysfunctional assumptions about people can lead to adverse practical consequences. This open access book advances this debate, but in a self-reflexive direction, asking: Who do we, as scholars in the fields of management and organization, think we are? What ontological assumptions about ourselves do we live by? Do we think we are something "special", a 'Homo Academicus', distinctively separated from the life-world of managers and employees but linked with other academics such as, say, philosophers and sociologists? If so, what are the consequences and implications of such assumptions? Part of the popular Palgrave Debates in Business and Management series, each of the chapters disclose, problematize, and criticize different ontological assumptions about 'Homo Academicus' that underpins research in the fields of management and organization. It will be of great interest to management and organization scholars and students, as well as those with a broader interest in methodology and critical studies.

The rise and fall of states in the international system has been an interesting problem that has received attention amongst scholars, policy makers, journalists, politicians and leaders of states. Interestingly there have been numerous attempts that have sought to define, explain and interpret the consequences of these developments that occur in the international system (Chan, 2008:1). Efforts have been made to define 'Great Powers', 'Middle Powers', 'Emerging Powers', 'Small Powers', Super Powers', 'Hegemons' etc, of which the idea of 'Great Power' and 'Emerging Power', receives primary attention in this research. The dramatic rise of China and India in particular, in terms of their economy and military capabilities, has brought about a paradigm shift in terms of thinking of world politics that is coupled with the decline of the US' hegemonic status. Randall Schweller points out that there have been arguments that support the fact of the increasing potential for security competition and war between the US and China and on the other hand he also directs the reader to the optimist's argument that the transition of power would be smooth and evolutionary where there will be efforts towards accommodating these changes that are occurring in the international system. He also points out that there will be efforts by great powers to accept these changes through restraint, reciprocity, cooperation and establish a mutually acceptable order that would benefit all (Schweller, 2011: 285). These complexities make it both interesting as well as a serious concern in terms of peace and security in the world.

This book is about the making of justice. Despite the growing scholarship on transitional and transformative justice, contested struggles for justice in times of political change fail to get the nuanced attention we think they deserve. It seeks to understand how the making of justice is a craft and how this process of craft making is itself a source of political change. The authors introduce a new and novel conceptual framework of justicecraft which sheds light upon political change by unpacking five key elements--the skills, knowledge, labor, affect, and materiality--involved in contested struggles for justice. Justicecraft illuminates the stories and struggles for justice, enabling a greater understanding of accompanying social, political, and cultural shifts in society which unfold during times of conflict. By framing justice as craft, the authors offer a more fluid understanding of how people are producing justice on the ground--and identify the means, the instruments, the language, and claims involved in the process. Each chapter applies the framework of justicecraft to diverse global case illustrations of struggles against past, present, and future injustices and wrongdoings and draws out the key elements embedded in these processes.

In thematic terms, this book seeks to promote vital debate on the interactions between economic, political, and social processes. Latin American Political Economy publishes new, relevant, and empirically grounded scholarship that deepens our understanding of contemporary Latin American political economy and contributes to the formulation and evaluation of new theories that are both context-sensitive and subject to broader comparisons. Inspired by the need to provide new analytical perspectives for understanding the massive social, political, and economic transformations underway in Latin America, the series is directed at researchers and practitioners interested in resurrecting political economy as a primary research area in the developing world. It is especially concerned with how findings may further our understanding of development models, the socio-political institutions that sustain them, and the practical problems they confront.

This book provides the first systematic, empirical analysis of the media's approach to US vice-presidential selection (or the "veepstakes"). In their news coverage, Devine finds that media outlets typically treat vice-presidential selection as little more than a game--by focusing on how potential running mates might help to win the election, rather than how they might help the next president to govern. Based on an original content analysis of hundreds of veepstakes profiles from 2000-2020, this book quantifies the news media's relative emphasis on various selection criteria, in general and across different electoral circumstances. The analysis suggests that journalists generally fail to serve the public interest by emphasizing electoral over governing considerations. However, Devine also points to positive examples of media coverage that help the public to evaluate potential running mates' governing credentials, and suggests ways in which scholars, journalists, and citizens might encourage media outlets to provide more substantive, responsible coverage of the vice-presidential selection process in future elections.

This edited volume presents, for the first time, a history of anthropology regarding not only the well-known European and American traditions, but also lesser-known traditions, extending its scope beyond the Western world. It focuses on the results of these traditions in the present. Taking into account the distinction between empire-building and nation-building anthropology, introduced by G. Stocking and taken up by U. Hannerz, the book investigates different histories of anthropology, especially in ex-colonial and marginal contexts. It highlights how the hegemonic anthropologies have been accepted and assimilated in local contexts, which approaches have been privileged by institutions and academies in different locations, how the anthropological approach has been modelled and adapted according to specific knowledge requirements related to the cultural features of different areas, and which schools emerge as the most consolidated today.Each chapter presents a "cultural history" of one of the historical-cultural and geo-political contexts that influenced and produced the specific disciplinary traditions. The chapters highlight the local contributions to the discipline, the influences that the world centres have on the peripheries, but also the ways in which the peripheries have "learned from the centres" in order to re-elaborate meaningful or otherwise recognisable disciplinary lines.

This open access book explores the use of urban technologies for urban safety and security. Rather than focusing on the technologies themselves, it provides and in-depth analysis of the complex urban transformations linked to the increasing integration of technical systems in the built environment. Interdisciplinary contributions explain how technologies can improve urban safety, whilst offering a broader discussion relative to urban, socio-economic and political factors. Against simplistic techno-solutionist ideas, the authors illustrate the role of technology as means to an end and show how technologies can widen our understanding of safety and security. Readers will be introduced to issues relative to the practical implementation, development, and testing of urban technologies via numerous case studies from cities around the world.

This book contends that the development of modern Chinese international thought has been profoundly shaped by the distinctive nature of the Chinese state as a contender state and its global positioning since 1912. The argument posited demonstrates that, notwithstanding the varied perspectives on the 'international' held by Chinese intellectuals throughout the 20th century, there exist commonalities across the periods analyzed in this book. In essence, the book emphasizes that the shared elements influencing the production of modern Chinese international thought do not derive from a unified cultural Chinese identity but rather stem from China's evolving geopolitical position in the modern world.

This book examines the contributory role of inclusive housing management services in safeguarding the living environment, empowering neighborhoods, sustaining lovable home, building social capital, fostering community wellbeing and social sustainability from the perspectives of the sociology of housing. By repositioning professional housing management as an important driving force in community building, this book argues that the community-initiated inclusive housing management model has been acting as a driving force in enhancing a sense of belonging, cultural renewal, environmental sustainability, social integration and community cohesion particularly in cities with high density and compact development. This case study in Hong Kong will make an important contribution to interdisciplinary research in urban sociology, business management, community development, leadership building and environmental health. This study also contributes to the international literature on the dynamics of neighborhood and community governance by addressing the concrete local community initiatives and collaborative management practices in meeting the ever-changing environmental, social and health risks in Hong Kong and beyond. It will be of value to scholars researching on housing management and inclusive community building in world cities globally

This book is the second installment of a trilogy that explores the spatial dimensions of music. Music has generated substantial interest among geographers, but other academic disciplines have also developed related spatial perspectives on music. This trilogy brings together multiple approaches, each book investigating a bundle of interrelated themes. New Geographies of Music 2: Music in Urban Tourism, Heritage Policies and Place-making starts by exploring contemporary approaches to the study of popular music, as well as the relations existing between music, tourism, heritage and urban geography. The chapters address a range of issues, including how music shapes the "feel" of touristic towns and urban public spaces, how music scenes have an increasing role in heritage and tourism policies, and how this recognition of music has consequences on artistic practices and urban imaginaries. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between space and music.

This book sheds light on the overall description and explanation of the current socio-political, economic and cultural environment concerning the development of China's audio streaming programs industry. It interprets the emergence of the "ear economy" through the subjects of media ecology, media psychology, communication studies and cultural criticism, media industrial studies, sociology and anthropology. The book skillfully weaves together historical, cultural, and industry studies, along with textual and critical discourse analysis. This interdisciplinary work contributes to multiple academic fields including literary and cultural studies, media and communication studies, China/Asia studies, and political theory.

This book explores the past and current traces that cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals used by humans have left in Anglophone literary fiction. In times of accelerated global warming, an acute pandemic, and breakthroughs in bioengineering practices, discussions on how to rethink the relationships to these animals have become as heated as perhaps never before. Livestock and Literature examines what literature has to contribute to these debates. In particular, it draws on counter-narratives to so-called livestock animals' commodification in selected science- and speculative fiction (SF) works from the twenty-first century. These texts imagine 'what if' scenarios where "livestock" practice resistance, transform into biotechnologically modified, postanimal beings, or live in close companionship to humans. Via these three points of access, the study delineates the formal and thematic strategies SF authors apply to challenge anthropocentric and speciesist thought patterns. The aim is to shed light on how these alternative storyworlds expand readers' understanding of the lives of farmed animals; seeking insight into how literature shapes human-animal relationships beyond the page.

This edited volume focuses on Curriculum scholars' critical reflections on teacher education (TE) within South Africa to offer insights into critical considerations for the socio-economic, transformational, social and environmental justice and decolonization challenges that the country faces. Much of the literature on teacher education takes on a policy and practice focus to the exclusion of deep and fundamental curriculum questions on what is teacher education for, for whom, where and who decides. Within South Africa, the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualification (MRTEQ) forms the official policy that informs teacher education curriculum and certification to become a teacher. This volume raises critical and complicated questions for teacher educators and curriculum scholars to inspire a deeper understanding of teacher education beyond a set of parochial policy prescribed modules/courses that one needs to take to become a professional teacher.

This book reexamines the socioeconomic and political transformation that occurred in Brazil during the 1940s as a result of the Second World War. Integrating social and political history, the author explores the adoption of new policies around state-sponsored industrialisation, the consolidation of Brazilian labour law institutions, and the expanded influence of ¿racial democracy¿ in the country's domestic and foreign policy. The book argues that the nature of the Brazilian state and its definitions of citizenship were redefined both from ¿the top¿ ¿ as a result of Brazil¿s integration in the new international order following the War ¿ and ¿from below¿ - as antifascism and mass nationalism opened new spaces for subaltern agency. Challenging traditional narratives on Brazil¿s transition from the Estado Novo dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas to a postwar democratic experience, this book highlights the extent to which political developments were shaped by key global processes and foreign relations with the USA. The book also focuses on the ¿bottom-up¿ forces and actors that brought about change in Brazil, emphasising the role of workers, protestors, and popular actors in shaping history. Breaking new ground in Brazilian historiography, this book makes a significant contribution to studies of populism and democratisation in Latin America.

​In the postwar years, Dutch survivors Eddy de Wind, Louis Micheels, and Elie A. Cohen, who went on to become practicing psychoanalysts, penned accounts of their survival of the Nazi camps. Their sober assessments contrast sharply with those by Bruno Bettelheim and Viktor Frankl, which emphasized decisiveness, 'positive thinking', and resistance, missing the fact that many Holocaust victims with those characteristics or other qualities did not survive. De Wind's, Micheels' and Cohen's accounts are more sober, (self-)critical, and shaped by analytical practice. By analyzing them anew and comparing them with accounts by female doctors who survived Block 10 in Auschwitz, this book argues that their theories of survival accord with contemporary sensibilities in psychoanalysis and Holocaust historiography. Psychoanalytic concepts have changed over time in response to greater understanding of the Holocaust and recent Holocaust historiography makes us more receptive to insights that were unfashionable in the first postwar decades.

This book examines the establishment and implementation of the AfCFTA, which is the largest free trade area globally, covering 54 African countries. It explores how this initiative has the potential to reshape Africa-EU relations by promoting intra-African trade, economic integration, and diversification, as well as inter-regional trade. Both continents have potential to serve as global actors in reshaping the global order in ways that can affect how multilateralism foster inclusive development. However, whether this will happen would be a function of how the EU and AU define their interests and relationship.

The book systematically presents Derrida's views on hospitality, as reflected in his texts and lectures from 1995 until his death in October 2004. Derrida's engagement with hospitality is perhaps the most important and extensive philosophical attempt to respond critically to the growing hostility of many governments worldwide towards specific categories of foreigners, such as refugees and immigrants. Particular emphasis is placed on the 'aporetic' nature of hospitality that Derrida describes: namely, that, on the one hand, the provision of hospitality brings us face to face with the hyper-ethical 'law' of 'unconditional hospitality, ' which requires the unconditional reception of the other, i.e. the provision of hospitality to the foreigner without conditions, restrictions or expecting anything in return. On the other hand, the provision of hospitality forces us to face the 'conditional' laws of hospitality, which, while establishing a right to and a duty of hospitality, simultaneously restrict hospitality by setting conditions for the arrival and stay of the foreigner. The book also analyses the 'decision' and the 'event' of hospitality, as well as the unresolved 'aporia' at the heart of the ethics of hospitality (or of ethics in general), an aporia or contradiction related to the fact that we cannot be hospitable towards a singularity without 'sacrificing' some other singularities. Attention is paid to Derrida's attempt to open the provision of hospitality beyond humans, that is, to other living beings. Derrida's views on hospitality are examined in the book in the light of the philosophical thought of Emmanuel Levinas, Immanuel Kant and René Schérer.

This book suggests and promotes new paradigms for intellectual disability. Challenging the predominant neoliberal agenda, it combines extensive clinical experience, conceptual analysis, and recent research. The authors explore the way that promotion of autonomy and choice overlooks the fundamentally relational needs of people with intellectual disabilities by examining four significant, repeating themes. What neoliberal policies are and how they suffocate innovation; the recurring scandals that characterise ID services in all cultures; the counter-intuitive belief that behavioural interventions can somehow address emotional distress; and fundamental tensions in the relationship between parents and services. Each chapter proposes alternative and hopeful ways to address the 40% of people with intellectual disabilities whose distress generates challenges for parents and staff. Written primarily for intellectual disability researchers, professionals, service managers, and policy-makers, this book constitutes a useful reading also for scholars in psychology, psychiatry and nursing, as well as specialist historians, geographers, sociologists, and social anthropologists engaged with intellectual disabilities.

This book investigates European higher education internationalisation policies during a period marked by extreme upheaval due to Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. Situating her analysis at the intersection of higher education research and policy studies, the author combines historical and sociological institutionalism to investigate how this time of disruption impacted higher education policies in England, France and Germany. Based on extensive qualitative data derived from expert interviews and document analysis, the study offers timely insights into dynamics of institutional change and stability in higher education governance, as well as implications for the future of cross-border education and internationalisation. The book will appeal to academics and students interested in education policy and the internationalisation of higher education.

This book explores the history of, and approaches to, documentary production within China from the Cultural Revolution to the present day. It examines the institutionalisation of socialist realism during the PRC's revolutionary era; considers the emergence of the fluid xianchang aesthetics and the creation of contingent subjectivities in relation to physicist Carlo Rovelli's loop quantum gravity theory; explores two factory films through the angle of temporality; argues that time in the post-X era is multi-layered and can be experimented through a cinematic ruin aesthetics; and theorises ecological temporality in relation to Jean-Paul Sartre's ontology on being as freedom and Caroline Godart's analysis of difference.

This book explores the activism of the Italian collective Wu Ming. Engaging in a dynamic conversation with critical theory, post-workerist philosophy and eco-criticism, Saporito illuminates how Wu Ming's forms of protest radically challenge neoliberal models of subjectivity through a revived commitment to an ​eco-centric ethics. The book charts how Wu Ming's interventions, combining embodied, literary and online activism, aim to performatively create life-rhythms, practices and ultimately a political subjectivity alternative to fast-paced anthropocentric models imposed by neoliberal apparatuses. In-depth analyses of Wu Ming's participation in the 27th Genoa G8 Summit, literary texts and online presence define the trajectory of their interventions, which moved from a traumatic repudiation of neoliberal apparatuses in Genoa to a thorough exploration of how these apparatuses produce and control subjectivity. Wu Ming's literary texts invite the reader to grasp the complexity of the human-non-human relations these apparatuses exploit, while affirmatively exploring eco-centric ethical relations to the non-human other. Wu Ming open their bodies to these relations via hikes, walks, and performances where they try out slow-paced life rhythms and experiment with the non-human affordances of multiple media. Wu Ming's transmedia activism links these offline initiatives with online strategies that promote the collective creation of critical content, slow down online users' fast-paced experience, and mobilise a network of human and non-human agents that re-energise embodied, street actions.

This book explores how and why policy and political actors have responded to the recent European 'refugee crisis', and the effects of these responses across different governmental levels. Whereas previous studies have tended to focus on discourses and policies implemented by governments, far less attention has been paid to how and why these discourses and policies emerge. Drawing on evidence from Italy - a country that has been centrally affected by the 'crisis' - this book examines knowledge-formation and decision-making processes and actors' interactions related to asylum-seeking migration at sub-national, national and EU level. It shows that policymakers at all levels of government were influenced by perceptions of public attitudes towards immigration, which were however often disconnected from objective evidence. As such, the book argues that migration policymaking is driven not so much by public opinion, as much as it is by perceptions of public opinion. The book will appeal to all those interested in multi-level governance, migration studies, public policy, and European politics. Andrea Pettrachin is Researcher at the University of Turin, and Collegio Carlo Alberto, Italy.