Explores a wide range of utopias and dystopias in film and literature and their important relationship to our present moment.

Wastelands and Wonderlands challenges readers, in these uniquely dystopian times, to reevaluate their ideas about utopia and dystopia. Bringing together film, literary, and utopian studies scholars from across the world, this interdisciplinary collection explores a wide range of utopias and dystopias in film and literature, from visionaries as varied as William Morris and George Lucas to such fresh new and distinctive voices as Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and N. K. Jemisin. Contributors dismantle myths about utopian and dystopian film, literature, and television and explore the nature of utopian and dystopian fiction and its important relationship to our present moment. Whether through ecocritical work, work aimed at decolonizing utopian studies, debates about our relationship with technology and the nonhuman, forms of utopian hope and pessimism, or new thinking about cinematic and literary techniques and production, these essays offer fresh insight into the subject area and something to interest any reader.

This authored volume rethinks how injustice is understood in political theory. Rather than seeing it as a departure from justice, the book argues that injustice is structural, constitutive, and foundational to modern liberal orders. Drawing on liberal political thought, anti-caste critique, Black radical traditions, feminist philosophy, and decolonial perspectives, it examines key liberal assumptions of neutrality, consensus, abstraction, and institutional design.

Each chapter treats epistemic, historical, affective, and material silences as central to political analysis. Instead of repairing liberalism, the book seeks to unlearn its closures and open space for grounded and plural ways of imagining politics. It treats listening, refusal, testimony, memory, and affect as theoretical contributions in their own right.

It brings together critical genealogy, affect theory, subaltern studies, and epistemic refusal. It engages with thinkers such as B. R. Ambedkar, Audre Lorde, Iris Marion Young, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Leanne Simpson, and places Global South thought in conversation with Western traditions while maintaining difference. Across eight chapters, the book develops a political theory attentive to history, structural harm, and lived experience.

It provides a critique of liberalism's conceptual limits and offers an alternative approach that emphasizes listening, witnessing, and world-making. It will be of interest to scholars and students in political theory, postcolonial studies, gender studies, and social justice.

• sachlich Zusammenhaengendes im Verbund darstellt,
• die Moeglichkeit gibt, das Erlernte sogleich anhand von Fragen und Faellen zu kontrollieren und
• viele Beispiele und Grafiken bietet, die der Veranschaulichung dienen.

• Einfuehrung in die juristische Arbeitsmethode
• Zustandekommen von Vertraegen
• Das Schuldverhaeltnis
• Unwirksame und mangelhafte Willenserklaerungen
• Einzelne vertragliche und gesetzliche Schuldverhaeltnisse
• Dritte im Schuldverhaeltnis

• klare, gut strukturierte Darstellung
• anschauliche Beispiele
• Aufbauschemata
• ergaenzende Kontrollfragen

Examines the origins and development of US Supreme Court policymaking in the area of race between 1801 and 2024.

Supreme Court Policymaking and Race presents a comprehensive and systematic account of the exercise of power by the US Supreme Court in deciding racial policy conflicts beginning with the Marshall Court and ending with the Roberts Court. Author Barbara L. Graham draws upon three related analytic frameworks to evaluate the extent to which the Court's decisions have protected the constitutional and statutory rights of people of color: institutional racial orders, partisan regimes, and jurisprudential regimes. Based on an empirical analysis of the outcomes in 441 race cases decided over fourteen chief justice tenures, Graham provides strong evidence for the claim that with the exception of a fifty-six-year period (1930 until 1986), the Supreme Court has acted as a foe, not a friend, to the rights of people of color. The findings show that when egalitarian political coalitions are in control at the national level, the Court is more likely to further their racial policy goals to protect the legal rights of people of color.

Interrogating the notion of medical knowledge and public health practices in colonial India, this volume explores the complex encounters between Western medical systems and indigenous healing traditions during British rule. The book examines how colonial medical institutions functioned as instruments of both care and control, while indigenous practices retained their relevance among the masses. Through detailed case studies including W.M. Haffkine's plague vaccine campaigns, the Rockefeller Foundation's public health interventions, and the evolution of medical research under colonial constraints, the book reveals the multifaceted nature of medical encounters at various sites between 1820 and 1920. The analysis extends to examining the Indian Medical Gazette as a mirror reflecting contemporary medical debates, the contours of medical research in a colonial laboratory, and comparative perspectives from other colonies in Southeast Asia and East Africa. The work demonstrates how medical knowledge became a contested terrain where scientific advancement, colonial politics, and indigenous resistance intersected.

This book will be of significant interest to historians of medicine, colonial studies scholars, public health professionals, sociologists, and policy planners seeking to understand the historical foundations of contemporary medical systems in South Asia. It offers valuable insights for postgraduate students and researchers in medical history, colonial history, public health, and South Asian studies.

Offers a new First Amendment framework that permits deterring political deceit, while minimizing the chill of honest discourse, by targeting fraudulent intent, not false content

More than ever, influencers and politicians communicate political messages that they do not believe to be true. This political deceit is constitutionally valueless, harms public discourse, and impedes effective public decision-making. Yet, under current doctrine, the Supreme Court would invalidate any regulation of deceitful political advocacy as an abridgement of political speech.

In Deterring Political Deceit, David Chang explores why traditional efforts to target falsity in political speech have been rooted in constitutional error. While the Court has determined that the defamation of public officials is unprotected, it wrongly declared that false statements of fact lack constitutional value, and overlooked the contradiction between deceitful communicative intent and free speech values. Both errors together have prevented reformers from identifying the political fraudsters who should be deterred by law, and recognizing the politically sincere who should be protected and respected, even when wrong.

Chang makes a bold and compelling legal argument for why deceitful political speech should be excluded from First Amendment protection. He proposes a dexterous solution: A false political statement is constitutionally valuable, and deserves protection-if the speaker believes their message to be true. A political message that the speaker did not believe to be true, regardless of its content, is constitutionally valueless, societally harmful, and does not deserve protection from regulatory deterrence. Drawing upon fresh, valuable insights, Deterring Political Deceit identifies wrongdoing that challenges the survival of this constitutional democracy, and charts a path for the People's self-defense through law.

This book brings together intercultural philosophy and human rights by focusing on how the theory and practice of human rights evolve differently in a plurality of contextual realities but coincide in the affirmation of key universal values.

Introducing a philosophical perspective on intercultural communication, the author considers Karl Jaspers's idea of the Axial Age but expands it in dialogue with authors such as Juergen Habermas and Enrique Dussel, who help define "Axiality" as a broader framework to address the plurality of cultures and norms that influence geopolitics, economics, human rights, and peace today. Focusing on Western Europe and South America as two examples of regional integration, the author argues that emerging regional blocs are not simply a matter for political economy but also for considerations on normativity, historical progression or regression, democratic participation of civil society, and the promotion of human rights and peace. In each region there are alternative discourses, practices, and systems that reveal, promote, and teach these values. Understanding the plurality of initiatives supporting human rights and peace and using intercultural communication to learn about their common claim to universality can help us address the challenges we face in the 21st century.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of human rights, philosophy, political theory, history, anthropology, theology, international relations, policy studies, cultural studies, and more broadly to the wider humanities and social sciences.

What can we learn from those who have acted violently and what can be gained from giving them a voice? This book, translated from the Italian, takes readers inside the rarely heard world of violent offenders, exploring the story of Stefania Albertani who was convicted of killing her older sister without apparent motive. Through a series of searching interviews with two criminologists, buried memories surface and the dialogue uncovers the unique "cosmology" of her violent act.

Moving beyond explanations rooted in social exclusion and mental illness, the book offers a rare insight into violent human behaviour and its causes. It also shows how dialogue can open new pathways toward restorative justice, challenging us to rethink what we know about violence.

This book explores how, in an AI-driven world, a leader's inner emotional landscape -- thoughts, feelings, and unconscious patterns --directly shapes decision-making, communication, and organizational outcomes. Unlike traditional leadership books that emphasize external competencies, this book places inner mastery at the core of sustainable, high-impact leadership. Drawing on coaching psychology, neuroscience, and extensive corporate experience, it provides a practical, evidence-informed roadmap for leaders seeking to elevate both personal and professional results.

A central feature of the book is its application model for emotional mastery in leadership contexts. It introduces structured methods for emotional regulation, self-observation, and recalibration under pressure. Complex neuroscience and psychological insights are translated into simple, actionable tools for managers, entrepreneurs, and executives -- ensuring that lessons are not merely theoretical but directly transferable to the workplace. The result is enhanced resilience, stronger collaboration, and healthier organizational cultures.

Key benefits include:

* A repeatable process for consciously managing emotions and responding with clarity

* Authentic confidence built on self-awareness rather than authority

* Lasting inner stability in a fast-changing, AI-driven world

* The ability to identify and overcome limiting beliefs and emotional patterns that quietly hold leaders back

Ultimately, this book empowers professionals to break through internal barriers, align their inner and outer worlds, and lead with purpose, balance, and strength in an increasingly complex business environment.

This book explores the role of leadership in shaping places and driving sustainable urban and regional development. Moving beyond the traditional organisational focus of leadership studies, it uses inspiring case studies to show how place-based leadership can become more attuned to local needs, across sectors such as housing, healthcare, creative industries and environmental sustainability.

Addressing societal challenges-urbanisation, inequality and climate resilience-it offers practical strategies for place-centric leadership which drives social value. Bridging theory and practice, this timely resource will inspire academics, policy makers and practitioners to rethink leadership for equitable, thriving communities.

Policy Process Frameworks in Practice offers a fresh and critical look at the main frameworks used to study policy processes, with a unique focus on their application in Brazil and Latin America.

Rather than simply presenting theories, it examines how these models are used in practice, highlighting both their strengths and their limits. By shifting attention to the Global South, the book challenges the idea that frameworks developed in the Northern Hemisphere are only applied elsewhere, showing instead how they are reshaped and enriched in new contexts. Each chapter follows a clear and accessible structure: a concise overview of the framework, a systematic review of its reception in Brazilian and Latin American scholarship, and a critical discussion of whether and how causal explanations are employed. This approach provides readers with both conceptual clarity and empirical depth, while also pointing to gaps and opportunities for future research.

Bringing a critical Global South perspective, this book challenges established policy frameworks, broadens international debates, and provides scholars with refined tools to understand how policies take shape and change.

This book examines non- state justice approaches to community safety and conflict transformation, focusing on a unique model of community-based restorative justice which emerged as part of the Northern Ireland peace process. The model includes former politically motivated prisoners as managers and practitioners of restorative justice processes, contrasting from designs which ordinarily include such individuals as participants.

The book uses ground-breaking insider ethnographic fieldwork andinterviews to explore two main aspects of this innovative model: first, the impact of ex-prisoner practitioners on restorative practice; and second, the impact of the practitioner role on ex-prisoner reentry. Although the organisation utilising this approach has received significant international attention for its contribution to Northern Ireland's wider peacebuilding process, the specific impact of ex-prisoner practitioners on restorative practices has not been investigated. This book tells that story, demonstrating that ex-prisoner leadership has been crucial in transforming restorative justice-yielding robust practitioner skillsets and positionalities that enhance restorative dynamics, while also generating opportunities that improve reintegration and desistance. It concludes that lessons from Northern Ireland provide essential benefits for restorative justice systems, and, through a pilot study in the US, additionally suggests that lived experience models have the capacity to advance safety, peacebuilding, and social justice mechanisms in other contexts.

Change Makers in Restorative Justice will be of interest to academics working in criminology and peacebuilding contexts and will offer particular insight to those in the restorative justice field. Its findings will additionally be relevant to practitioners and policymakers due to its practical contribution towards improving justice and reentry praxis through lived experience.

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

As devolution transforms governance across the UK, local authorities face unprecedented challenges in delivering services whilst managing severe budgetary constraints. This book investigates and provides insights into how local governments operate within Britain's evolving constitutional framework.

This comprehensive edited collection examines the realities of devolved powers across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, revealing why simply transferring responsibilities from Westminster hasn't reduced social inequalities. The authors identify critical pressure points-from inadequate expertise to accountability failures-that undermine local governance effectiveness.

Essential reading for public administration scholars, policy makers and practitioners seeking evidence-based solutions to strengthen local democracy and promote social justice through better territorial governance.

Many contemporary organizations claim to be "values-led". But what is the role of these values, where do they come from and how they are enacted in practice?

Humphrey Bourne helps leaders and managers navigate values from inception to incorporation. Exploring the tensions between the values championed by organisations versus what they actually practice, the book uses real-life stories and examples to illustrate the ways in which values do or don't work in context.

Grounded in up-to-date research, the book will help both those researching values and practitioners work with values that fit the needs of their organization.

Private arbitral tribunals constitute an important alternative to state courts, particularly in disputes arising out of international commercial contracts. Lower costs, faster proceedings, flexibility, confidentiality, and procedural autonomy are frequently cited as advantages. An economic perspective, however, takes a different approach: it examines the benefits parties expect from including an arbitration clause and the costs they weigh against those benefits.
Gerhard Wagner does not develop a formal mathematical model but rather a qualitative economic framework, which he tests against existing empirical studies. He adopts a comprehensive view of the international dispute resolution landscape. In addition to Germany, he conducts a comparative analysis of France, England, and Switzerland, assessing their competitive positions.
Demand for arbitration is driven less by cost advantages than by expected benefits. Parties seek the most accurate possible enforcement of contractual rights and obligations in order to maximize the joint value of their contract. This objective is balanced against financial and temporal costs, as well as potential effects of disclosing confidential information.
On the supply side, arbitrators, arbitral institutions, legislators, and state courts play a role. These actors are not neutral but pursue their own interests and respond to party preferences. Common assumptions about party-appointed arbitrators or a tendency toward "split-the-difference" awards do not withstand scrutiny. In the competition among arbitral seats, England is widely regarded as leading, while France, Switzerland, and Germany each offer distinct profiles. The study concludes by examining the relationship between arbitration and mediation and by discussing the broader effects of confidential dispute resolution.