This book explains the uses of laughter in contemporary China, and demonstrates how humour in China is put to many uses. Through the use of examples from different mediums such as film, sketch comedy, stand-up and sitcoms, this book demonstrates that Chinese comedy is not just about telling jokes or presenting funny scenarios-humour is also used to criticise social trends, to mock people in authority and to allow the public to reflect on China's dramatic economic and cultural changes. The authors bring comedy figures who are well-known in China, such as Zhao Benshan, Feng Xiaogang, and Guo Degang, to the attention of international readers, using translation and explanations to explain why Chinese people find their work both amusing and meaningful. They explore uniquely Chinese forms of comedy, like xiangsheng dialogues, and consider how international genres like stand-up and situation comedy are localised in China. They demonstrate how comedy can be used to sidestep censorship and satirise the humourless restrictiveness of the Chinese government. This book appeals readers who are interested in how humour is used as a form of political communication, how humour can cross national borders, and those interested in contemporary Chinese media and politics.

In recent decades, sanctions have become the preferred tool for the nonviolent coercion of other nations. The US government employs sanctions and embargoes to pressure not only enemies but sometimes even its friends. Despite their ubiquity, the debate over their efficacy continues. Measuring their success is controversial since many sanctions are economic, while the desired outcomes are political. Under what circumstances can sanctions or embargoes deliver their intended policy objectives at an acceptable cost? How can they best be integrated with other available instruments of national power?

The Strategy of Sanctions uses case studies from antiquity to the present to evaluate the strategic utility of sanctions and embargoes. The authors utilize a blended approach combining earlier definitions of sanctions, concepts from teaching of strategy, as well as terms of their own creation. They apply a common framework for teaching strategy, which disaggregates operational-level from strategic-level goals, and goals from strategies. By examining sanctions in different eras and contexts, the book highlights the circumstances that are most conducive to their efficacy.

This book presents a groundbreaking interdisciplinary approach to business transformation by applying Jungian analytical psychology and alchemical symbolism to organizational development. Drawing on depth psychology, literary criticism, and strategic management, it reveals how enterprises can evolve from the factual enterprise-fixated on operational efficiency-to the total enterprise, integrating unconscious dimensions, archetypal identity, and symbolic meaning. The transformation unfolds through three alchemical phases: Nigredo (deconstructing corporate myths and confronting shadow material), Albedo (distilling strategic paradoxes), and Rubedo (integrating opposites into living cultural infrastructure). Real-life business cases illuminate each phase, enriched by literary imagery, philosophy, and visual arts. This rigorous yet flexible framework of individuation empowers leaders, consultants, and scholars to achieve authentic organizational transformation beyond superficial branding. Essential for anyone exploring Jungian organizational studies, psychoanalytic business approaches, corporate identity development, and alternative methodologies for sustainable enterprise transformation.

In the summer of 2021, twenty years of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan came to a jarring end. The United States' longest war spanned four U.S. presidential administrations, claimed 2,461 American lives, and wounded more than 20,000 American soldiers. What began as an operation to destroy al-Qaeda mushroomed into a nation-building project. When at last the United States withdrew, the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban swept back into Kabul. Last Flight out of Kabul tells the story of what happened next: a dramatic humanitarian airlift of nearly 124,000 American citizens, Afghan allies, and international partners from Hamid Karzai International Airport under terribly dangerous conditions. Senior diplomat James P. DeHart was there, and he helped lead the harrowing evacuation on the ground in Kabul.

But the story begins long before the evacuation. In 2009 DeHart was assigned to a U.S. forward operating base in remote Panjshir Province as part of a surge of troops and civilians across Afghanistan intended to reverse the Taliban's momentum. During that heady, hopeful year, he lived with the U.S. military and together with the troops hiked, drove, and rode horseback from village to village in the shadow of the Hindu Kush mountain range to form alliances with the locals. Last Flight out of Kabul alternates between DeHart's year in Panjshir and the massive U.S. evacuation twelve years later. Last Flight out of Kabul comes full circle as the Afghans DeHart met and cared about in Panjshir appear once again in the evacuation he helped to coordinate.

Social change requires the emergence of a collective subject that can foster solidarity within and across national boundaries. But how can such a collective come together in our current era of liberal individualism and the pursuit of maximum profit? In The Politics of the Have-Nots, Hae Yeon Choo theorizes how this collective might cohere and mobilize, drawing on deep engagement with grassroots movements in South Korea and its diaspora over the past two decades.

Disillusionment has grown across the globe from the 2000s to the present. Wealth inequalities have consigned the marginalized to the shadows even as economies have expanded. By bridging five separate instances of mass mobilization during this period, Choo demonstrates the convergence of the collective political sensibility of the Have-nots. These are people who have experienced distinct but overlapping forms of violent dispossession, whether by evictions, layoffs, sexual harassment, immigration raids, and even mass shootings. Confronting these diverse forms of violence, the politics of the Have-nots challenge the cultural and material hegemony of neoliberal capitalism. They propose a critical theory of radical democracy based on expansive solidarity, taking on the struggles of others as their own.

While the mobilizations chronicled in this book are geographically centered in South Korea, many were transnational and linked by the collective vision of the Have-nots. Together, Choo shows, they become a powerful vision of the promise of radical democracy and emancipation from the margins.

This book focuses on county governance and development in Zhejiang Province, exploring the theoretical logic, practical context, and typical models of county governance under the guidance of Xi Jinping's important insights on county governance and development. By analyzing seven representative county (city) models-Yiwu, Jiashan, Deqing, Xinchang, Haining, Longgang, and Anji-it dissects how Zhejiang's counties leverage their unique advantages to promote high - quality development through reforms in commerce, integration with national strategies, digital empowerment, technological innovation, market - oriented factors, township - to - city transition, and ecological civilization construction. The book provides valuable references for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners engaged in county governance, regional development, and public administration across the country.

In this new edition, Reading Skills for Success continues to help students develop the reading skills and strategies they need to transition to reading material in mainstream academic settings. Designed for precollege readers and non-native speakers of English alike, the fully revised book focuses on the text-based, linguistic preparedness necessary to quickly spot key information and organizational structure in texts and avoid miscomprehension.

Written by academic experts who are practicing teachers in ESL intensive English, the book is grounded in sound pedagogical methods. Teachers will work through specific reading strategies with students; use the general activities and sample academic chapters in the book to practice the strategies being taught; and then have the students turn to outside readings, like their academic textbooks, to practice the strategies they are learning. Accessible for teachers and students, Reading Skills for Success provides a guide for developing text-based processing skills to improve reading confidence.

In Reading Skills for Success, 2nd Edition, students will:

• Learn to use word-level clues to increase reading comprehension.
• Recognize different types of expository text structures.
• Develop study skills for intensive analytical reading of academic prose.
• Practice reading strategies for in-depth, long-term understanding of complex academic texts.
• Apply skills to excerpts from actual textbooks used in first-year college courses representing a wide variety of fields in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

CEFR level: A1-B1

This book examines the dynamic interplay of consumer behaviour, trade networks, and long-distance alliances in driving economic growth across Qing China, Western Europe, and the Spanish American colonies from 1680 to 1840. Employing a reciprocal comparative framework, it illuminates the deep structural interconnections between Western and Chinese market systems. By utilising the innovative GECEM Database, which cross-references Western and Chinese primary sources to mine new archival data, the study constitutes a methodological advance that offers fresh insights into the Great Divergence debate.

Moving beyond an analysis of large-scale structures, this work emphasises the decisive agency of traders. By facilitating the bidirectional flow of Chinese goods to the West and European commodities to China, merchants catalysed a transformation: they reconfigured consumption, spawned new demand, and reshaped transcontinental socioeconomic relations.

The study situates these dynamics within critical geopolitical junctures: the establishment of maritime customs under the Kangxi emperor in 1680, the closure of trade and rise of the Canton system under Qianlong in 1756, and the outbreak of the Opium Wars in 1840. These turning points illuminate transformations in trade strategies, local economies, state capacity, and relations between merchants and officials across the Ming-Qing transition.

Engaging with recent scholarship, Global Powers offers a new perspective on Qing economic and political practices, as well as the dynasty's geopolitical tensions, through a local lens on foreign trade networks. It is an essential reading for specialists in global and economic history, sinology, East Asian studies, early modern history, as well as for economists and scholars of Sino-European relations.

This open access volume employs case studies in selected African countries to investigate the emergence and evolution of sustainable entrepreneurship within the continent. Utilizing a comparative approach, it integrates management, neo-institutional, and entrepreneurship theories to fully understand the meanings and practices of sustainable entrepreneurship across diverse African contexts. Though often viewed as homogenous, entrepreneurship practices in Africa exhibit variations shaped by cultural beliefs. Contributions explore three streams: individual (vision, emotion, rationality, and values and norms), organizational (entrepreneurial orientation, MSP, internal culture, routines), and context (opportunities, industry culture, isomorphisms). Drawing insights from experiences in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, this book is a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers focusing on the development of sustainable entrepreneurship in Africa.

This book examines the role of civil society in guarding Indonesia's democracy, with a spotlight on the 2024 general elections. The 2024 election was characterized by the incumbent's significant influence in shaping electoral outcomes, even prior to election day, including bureaucratic involvement aimed at favouring specific candidates aligned with the regime, thereby undermining procedural democratic norms. Within this context, this book considers how far civil society plays a role in safeguarding Indonesia's democracy. This book is guided by two main considerations: the general picture of Indonesia's democracy based on the 2024 general elections process, and the role of civil society in guarding the electoral process of the 2024 general elections. It looks at participation in electoral political competition vis-a-vis identity politics, such as affiliations with Islamic figures or leveraging Chinese ethnic identity, and the actions of Indonesian religious organizations such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, as well as, the role of women's NGOs in ensuring implementation of the quota for women's representation in the 2024 elections. It also illustrates how young Muslims, utilizing digital platforms and contemporary cultural movements, have rejuvenated Islamism into a dynamic and adaptable force that effectively responds to modern challenges while upholding democratic ideals, which are marked by inclusivity, justice, and civic engagement. The central finding, however, is that this broad civic action is undermined by fragmentation within an increasingly closed and transactional political system. Ultimately, the book concludes that this diversity within civil society, despite its challenges, represents the most distinctive opportunity for safeguarding and revitalizing Indonesian democracy beyond 2024.

This book, the second volume of The Synergistic Effect of Sustainable Business Practices on Human Capital and Economic Performance, extends the research and insights of the first volume by focusing on the intersection of human capital development, economic performance, and sustainable business strategy. In an era of rapid technological advancement, shifting workforce expectations, and intensified ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) imperatives, organizations face the challenge of integrating sustainability not only into operational practices but also into the management and development of their human assets. This volume explores how strategic workforce management, employee engagement, and organizational learning contribute to sustainable economic outcomes at the firm, industry, and national levels. The book will covers theoretical frameworks linking sustainability, human capital, and economic performance, research Findings on the role of human resources in achieving sustainability-driven competitive advantage, case studies from diverse industries and geographies illustrating best practices in integrating HR strategy with sustainability objectives, policy implications for governments and international agencies in promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth and future-oriented discussions on the Future of Work, workforce digitalization, and the skills required in a sustainable economy.

By combining perspectives from economics, human resource management, and sustainability science, this volume will serves as a valuable reference for academics, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to understand and leverage the synergies between people and profit in driving sustainable corporate performance.

City Opaque is a book about how cities are produced-not just with plans, money, concrete and cranes, but through grey spaces that operate through erasure, ambiguity, and the overproduction of contradictory laws and regulations. Set in Ho Chi Minh City, widely known as Saigon, Hun Kim follows developers, state officials, investors, and residents as they navigate one of the fastest-growing urban economies in the world. Through years of close observation and lived encounters - from rooftop bars overlooking glittering construction sites to neighborhoods quietly erased by disappearing planning maps - he reveals a city shaped as much by what is hidden, revised, or forgotten as by what is planned and recorded.

Rather than treating corruption, legal ambiguity, and disorder as failures of development, this book shows how opacity itself is a form of governmental reason and a strategy for producing space in the city. Laws multiply but rarely clarify. Archives disappear. Plans are rewritten after the fact. These practices are born out of rationalities that enable land to be reassigned, capital to move, and futures to be reimagined - often at great cost to some residents, but with enormous payoff for others. Moving beyond familiar stories of "corruption" or "failed governance," City Opaque offers a new way of understanding urban development in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Through a comprehensive analysis of relations between Europe and China during the Cold War, this volume reveals how those interactions quietly reconfigured the global balance of power, helping to forge the contemporary international order. Rooted in a rich array of multi-archival sources, the book brings together an international group of historians to explore China's relationships with both Western European powers and European socialist countries, tracing how China systematically courted Europe to reshape the Cold War order and maneuver between the superpowers.

Beginning with China's diplomatic opening to Western Europe from the 1950s to the 1970s, contributors highlight key turning points in rapprochement with France, Britain, West Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, marked by a shifting mix of ideology, strategic calculation, and detente-era geopolitics. The volume then moves eastward, unpacking China's fraught but ambitious diplomacy with communist Europe, including Hungary, Poland, and Albania, as Beijing sought to contest Moscow's dominance and present itself as an alternative pole of leadership in the socialist world. Breaking new ground by integrating Chinese and European sources and perspectives, this book shows how China and Europe, often considered secondary actors, played crucial roles in reshaping the Cold War system and turning a rigid superpower standoff into a more multipolar world.

This book seeks to untangle the slippery notions of wellbeing constructs of the Trans-Tasman Pacific Islander community and presents case studies from diverse disciplines that grapple with Pacific wellbeing. Subjective and objective realms of Pacific wellbeing are woven together through Indigenous-led research approaches. The edited book redefines and illustrates notions of wellbeing as it relates to Pacific people living in Australia and New Zealand-the Trans-Tasman diaspora-through values-driven and strengths-based transdisciplinary research to inform applications in real-world contexts. The book presents broad and focused insights of the multi-faceted understandings of Pacific wellbeing compiled and authored by leading Pacific Islander researchers in the fields of Pacific communities, health, education, psychology, housing, economic mobility, and identity politics. Book chapters are presented with didactic sections about research methodologies and research recommendations contributing accessible tools for policy-making and to support future research about Pacific wellbeing.

Plastic surgery has exploded in popularity in the recent decades, with South Korea emerging as a leader of the global beauty economy. In Remedying the Body So-Rim Lee explores a cultural discourse of plastic surgery in South Korea through the feminist politics of care. Pulling together archival and cultural materials from the 1950s to the 2020s, Lee takes Korea as a paradigmatic example to reimagine coalitional ways of surviving a world governed by oppressive bodily norms.

Drawing from the Korean term koch'ida ("to cure or mend"), Lee uses "remedy" to name a broad spectrum of medical interventions performed to change the bodily appearance to arrive at a bodily norm. Remedy, however, is much more than medical treatment alone. This book contends that remedy is also a critical cultural ethos, a social performance of subjectivity, and a material practice of embodiment where state biopolitics and individual desire for belonging are inextricably entangled.

This book is an essential guide for educators seeking to integrate sustainability into business curricula. It bridges the gap between traditional profit-focused models and the urgent need for environmental and social responsibility. The book provides a robust framework for designing programs that equip future leaders with the skills to navigate complex ethical dilemmas and drive systemic change. This book is an essential guide for educators seeking to integrate sustainability into business curricula. It bridges the gap between traditional profit-focused models and the urgent need for environmental and social responsibility. Featuring diverse case studies and practical teaching strategies, it explores how to embed sustainable development goals across disciplines like finance, marketing, and strategy. This book empowers academics to foster a new generation of business thinkers capable of building a truly sustainable and equitable global economy.