Innovation is a constant in human life and organization, arising from within a context-based culture of social structures and beliefs. This book re-examines the processes, practices, and mechanisms of innovation from an anthropological perspective, offering a theory of innovation as a dynamic multidimensional system. It uses methods and stories across a broad arc of time, place, social and cultural context, and subject matter. The chapters explore the intersection of virtual, local, and global dynamics and deepen our understanding of aspects and dimensions of innovation that challenge common perceptions, particularly in business and organizational environments. The approach aims to situate innovation in an integrated view of human and non-human ecologies, and to create common ground for a new form of research and practice.

Tracing developments from the classical period to the early industrial revolution and beyond, Anne Murcott provides us with an accessible and entertaining social history of food packaging.

From tin cans, glass jars and bottles, plastic trays and stretch-wrap, Murcott shows the importance of food packaging for global food systems. As a pioneering excursion into the many aspects of the history of food packaging, the book examines shifts from domestic to commercial production, the emergence of associated technologies, changes in retailing, implications for policy and practice, along with current concerns about overpackaging.

Taking a wide historical and geographical angle, Murcott draws on sources such as trade magazines, manufacturers' archives, company histories, packaging textbooks, histories of international trade and interviews with key industry 'insiders'.

Written by a leading figure in the field, this book will benefit students of social studies of food production and consumption, of cultural studies, as well as researchers and those interested in the history of food.

This book explores the unique challenges of disenfranchisement faced by Christian chaplains working within the secular and pluralistic context of contemporary healthcare. The case study focuses on practitioners in Hong Kong and showcases the utilisation of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as a fruitful basis for practical theological endeavours. The role and perspective of the palliative chaplain as spiritual care specialist is examined, along with the tension that exists with the cultural and organisational context in which they operate. The chapters examine how end of life care practitioners can often face marginalisation, oppression, vulnerability, and disorientation among other difficult experiences that the author unites under a general theme of "homelessness". The book contributes to discussions regarding fuller integration of the spiritual dimension within a holistic vision of end of life care provision. It will be of particular interest to scholars of practical theology and chaplaincy, as well as palliative medicine.

This book examines the economic and social impacts of switching diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China, and vice versa, and investigates how China achieves its foreign policy objective of dissuading Taiwan's diplomatic partners and other third parties from engaging with Taiwan.

Highlighting the critical regions of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania, where the diplomatic competition between Taiwan and China is fierce, the contributions to this book analyze China's promises of economic benefits, threats of economic coercion and the perils of its foreign aid to the countries in these regions in pursuit of its anti-Taiwan policy. In addition to the competition of formal diplomatic ties, it also examines how existing informal relations have influenced Taiwan's increasing interactions with Central and Eastern European countries. Finally, the book explores how Taiwan's advantage in technology sectors has successfully been translated into economic leverage for Taiwan's international diplomacy.

Built upon the interdisciplinary expertise and collaborative efforts of 14 international scholars, this book will be a valuable resource to scholars and students of Taiwan studies, China studies and international relations.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This accessible and engaging textbook helps students to get to grips with key concepts, issues, and practices in social science research through the use of fun and informative illustrations and examples.

Written and illustrated by an experienced teacher of research methods in the social sciences, each chapter explains research concepts while using everyday examples and illustrations to make applied research comprehensive to students. It explains the step-by-step process for carrying out research through a range of topics and approaches, including survey research, research ethics, sampling, and experimental research. Chapters also include learning objectives, class activities, key terms, helpful hints, and suggestions for further reading.

This book will be essential reading for any undergraduate research methodology class in the social sciences.

In this groundbreaking book, Tehseen Thaver offers a fundamental reevaluation of how one should think about the relationship between the Qur'an, Shi'ism, and religious identity. Beyond Sectarianism focuses on the literary Arabic Qur'an exegesis of the highly influential yet less studied poet, historian, and exegete al-Sharif al-Radi (d. 1015). Al-Radi's fascinating interpretations sought to resolve Qur'anic ambiguities or mutashabihat. Through a philologically layered and historically attuned analysis, Thaver argues that al-Radi's efforts at resolving Qur'anic ambiguities were interlocked with the project of the canonization of the Arabic language.
Although he was marked as a Shi'i scholar, the interpretive and political horizons that informed al-Radi's scholarly endeavors could not be reduced to predetermined templates of sectarian identity. Rather, Thaver argues, al-Radi was an active participant and beneficiary of critical intellectual currents and debates that animated the wider Muslim humanities during his life, especially on questions of language, poetry, and theology. Thaver thus leads her readers to reconsider their assumptions about the interaction of sectarian identity and scriptural interpretation in the study of Islam and religion.
Though centered on the context of late tenth- and eleventh-century Baghdad under the Buyid dynasty, Beyond Sectarianism raises and addresses crucial questions of religious thought and identity with major ramifications for how we imagine the narrative of Islam and the place of sectarianism in it today.

The evil-god challenge is one of the most popular topics in contemporary philosophy of religion. In this landmark text, Jack Symes offers the most detailed examination of the challenge to date. Exploring the nature of god through the leading schools of philosophical theology, Symes argues that it is significantly more reasonable to attribute goodness to god than evil. Drawing from a breadth of ground-breaking material - in metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics and epistemology - Symes claims to defeat the evil-god challenge on behalf of traditional theism.

Is it any more reasonable to believe in a good god than an evil god? Not according to proponents of the evil-god challenge. After all, the world contains a significant amount of good and evil for which either god could be held responsible. However, if belief in both gods is equally as reasonable, then religious believers are unjustified in favouring one hypothesis over the other. Therefore, in order to defend their faith, theists must respond to the evil-god challenge: the question of what justifies belief in good god over evil god.

The Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s was a movement led by white religious liberals that housed Central Americans fleeing dictatorships supported by the United States government, giving them a platform to speak about the situation in their countries of origin.


This book focuses on the movement's whiteness by centering the voices of recipients of sanctuary and taking their critiques seriously. The result is an account of the movement that focuses on the inherent the agential limitations of sanctuary and the struggles for agency by recipients.

Using interviews with participants in the movement as well as auto-ethnographic research as the white pastor of a church in the New Sanctuary Movement, the author situates sanctuary as a site for theological reflection on some of the most pressing issues facing the church today - the possibilities of testimony, the Holy Spirit, ecclesiology, and mercy. In doing so, the author proposes a new theoretical framework for thinking about practice by introducing readers to Judith Butler's theories of subjectivation and arguing for ethnographically engaged theology that is able to think beyond virtue and excellence towards an understanding of fugitivity.

This book claims that John Calvin developed "Greek" doctrines of the interim state of souls, resurrection, and beatific vision through his reading of ancient Christian sources like Irenaeus of Lyons. "Greek" had been a technical term in Western theology since at least the 12th century to denote heterodox eschatology. Thomas Aquinas had employed it in that sense, and early modern Catholics like Robert Bellarmine and Pierre Coton in turn applied it to Calvin.

The book demonstrates that, in this respect at least, Calvin's opponents were correct: he was a "Greek." However, it questions whether that fact should lead modern theologians to dismiss him as a resource for contemporary reflection. Calvin's deep respect for and continuity with early Christian voices may serve as a positive model for theologians today, particularly in the Reformed tradition. By the same token, Reformed thinkers who seek inspiration from medieval scholasticism may find their relationship to Calvin complicated by the case presented here.

As a research field, social movement and political project, degrowth is a multi-faceted phenomenon. It brings together a range of practices including alternative forms of living and initiatives of various kinds in civil society, business and the state. Yet no comprehensive theory of degrowth transformations has so far been developed. Deep transformations fills this gap. It develops a theory of degrowth transformations drawing on insights from multiple fields of knowledge, such as political economy, sociology and philosophy. The book offers a holistic perspective that brings into focus transformation processes on various scales and points to various mechanisms that can facilitate degrowth. These for instance include ecosocial policies, transformative initiatives in business and civil society, and alternative modes of being in and relating to the world.

Thanks to the support of Lund University, an electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

Markets and power in digital capitalism delves into the complex world of modern capitalism, where technology giants reign supreme. From Google and Apple to Amazon and Tencent, these internet behemoths have reshaped the economic landscape, transforming capitalism as we know it.

Philipp Staab takes readers on a thought-provoking journey through the virtual realm, exploring how digital surveillance and evaluation practices have infiltrated every aspect of our lives. What sets digital capitalism apart, he argues, is the rise of 'proprietary markets'. No longer focused on producing goods and selling them for profit, today's meta-platforms thrive by owning and controlling the very markets in which they operate. This raises important questions about power dynamics, market monopolies and the future of economic systems.

With sharp insight and meticulous research, the book sheds light on the intricate workings of our digitised economy. Staab's compelling analysis challenges us to confront the realities of surveillance capitalism and the urgent need to address the inequities it perpetuates.

Statistics Explained, now in its fully revised Fourth Edition, is for students and researchers who wish to understand the statistical analyses used to analyse quantitative (numerical) research data in a wide range of academic disciplines, in particular, the behavioural, human and social sciences.

This book explains, in a clear and informative manner, the logic of statistical analysis, in particular the null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) method. Using this method, a range of statistical tests have been devised for different types of data. Each of these tests is explained in the book by adopting a step-by-step ("walkthrough") approach with a specific illustrative example. Crucially, these explanations do not require the reader to have an advanced knowledge of mathematics or statistics, but only assumes the basic mathematics which most readers will have learnt at high school. The book also examines the criticisms of NHST and introduces the reader to Bayesian statistics. As a result the reader will be able to critically evaluate the outcomes of statistical analysis both of their own work and that of others.

Statistics Explained will be of great interest to students and researchers in the behavioural, human and social sciences in understanding both the outcomes of their own research and also the research reports in the academic journals.

Computational Methods in Finance is a book developed from the author's courses at Columbia University and the Courant Institute of New York University. This self-contained text is designed for graduate students in financial engineering and mathematical finance, as well as practitioners in the financial industry. It will help readers accurately price a vast array of derivatives.

This new edition has been thoroughly revised throughout to bring it up to date with recent developments. It features numerous new exercises and examples, as well as two entirely new chapters on machine learning.

Features

• Explains how to solve complex functional equations through numerical methods
• Includes dozens of challenging exercises
• Suitable as a graduate-level textbook for financial engineering and financial mathematics or as a professional resource for working quants

Focusing on artists and creators, this shortform book analyses the labour market in the creative economy in the context of cultural policies.

Based on a series of studies involving Polish artists spanning 10 years, the book identifies the key factors needed to understand contemporary labour markets in the creative and cultural sectors worldwide. The authors integrate artists' perspectives to present truly rounded evidence, shedding light on the applicational perspective of the research findings.

Illuminating the socioeconomic status of artists in Poland, this book is essential reading for researchers interested in cultural policy and the creative economy, as well as work and labour studies more broadly. It will also be of interest to practitioners in the creative and cultural industries.

This book explores sustainable community development in Ghana post-COVID-19, highlighting examples of how individuals facing extreme challenges have adapted to their changing circumstances.

Through the voices of African researchers, it explores the different responses that local, subnational, and national stakeholders and communities initiated to preserve the gains made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Ghana during the global pandemic. This collection considers how policy makers are tackling the pressing issues of sustainability, climate change and its effects on Africa and Ghana in particular, and multi-stakeholder policy responses to building communities in a post-COVID-19 world. The case studies show how communities are interacting to ensure sustainable community development and learning in the Global South, and the role that education and learning, both formal and informal, play in strengthening livelihoods, choices, and opportunities in African communities.

An assessment of multi-stakeholder policy responses to building communities in Ghana, this book will be of interest to scholars and students in the field of Education, Education Management, Sociology, Economics, and African Studies. It will also be of interest to policy makers and practitioners engaged in community development programmes and activities and the development of associated policies.

The edges of cities are increasingly understood as places of dynamism and change, but there is little research on African urban peripheries, the nature of building, growth, investment and decline that is shaping them and how these are lived. This co-authored monograph draws on findings from an extensive comparative study on Ethiopia and South Africa, in conversation with a related study on Ghana. It examines African urban peripheries through a dual focus on the experiences of living in these changing contexts, alongside the logics driving their transformation. Through its conceptualisation and application of five 'logics of periphery', it offers unique, contextually-informed insights into the generic processes shaping urban peripheries, and the variable ways in which these are playing out in contemporary Africa for those living the peripheries.

This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence, thanks to the support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

This book is a concise but comprehensive guide to the history, present and possible futures of carbon capture and storage policy and action in the United Kingdom (UK).

There have been multiple failed starts, promises and "last chances" for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Europe, North America, China and Australia, but thus far it has repeatedly collided with the political and economic realities that the technology is too expensive and complicated to gain and keep policymakers' support. However, in the UK that might be changing, with explicit government support for CCS to help decarbonise industry. Set within the broader context of global interest in CCS, this book first outlines the technologies involved in the types of capture technology, transport options and storage options in the UK. It then briefly introduces an overarching policy analysis framework (John Kingdon's multiple streams approach) and uses it to give an account of the long history of CCS interest and efforts in three chapters covering the 1970s to 2002, 2003 to 2015 and 2016 to the present day. Marc Hudson focusses on the various arguments made for the introduction of CCS, and the slowly shifting coalitions of actors who make those arguments, while contrasting these with the perspectives of those opposed to CCS.

This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers researching and working in the field, as well as the related areas of energy policy, energy transitions and climate change.