Transdisciplinary in scope, chapters study disabilities using different methodological and epistemological approaches, highlighting continuing inequalities in access to healthcare, education and training, employment, housing and family support. Leading scholars rethink current paradigms and explore avenues for future research, policy, and advocacy.

The Research Handbook on Disability and Society is an essential resource for scholars and researchers in sociology, social policy and disability studies. It will also greatly benefit policymakers and practitioners working in disability policy and social work.

This book calls for a fundamental re-examination of how education, health, and care systems respond to autistic children and young people. Rather than focusing on how to manage behaviour or address perceived deficits, it shows how the practical application of acceptance can be a transformative way to support autistic children more effectively.

The act of acceptance is presented not as a passive attitude, but as something you actively do. Something that reshapes environments, relationships, and expectations. When acceptance is applied deliberately and consistently, it reduces anxiety, builds psychological safety, and creates the conditions in which autistic children can engage, communicate, and learn without coercion.

Drawing from real-world practice and lived experience, this book offers a clear, unified framework for acceptance-based support that can be quickly applied in your work. This solution-focused guide includes detailed case studies, reflective insights, and clear strategies to help you move from theory to practice. It demonstrates how acceptance can be a purposeful, structured, and effective tool in mental health, education, at-home, and community settings. Yorke considers what happens when acceptance moves from an idea to an active practice, transforming environments, restoring psychological safety, and enabling autistic children to belong without feeling compelled to change themselves, revealing the wonder and the power of acceptance.

Written for educators, professionals, policymakers, service providers, and those with lived experience, this book offers a practical alternative to traditional autism support models.

Southern African Perspectives for Inclusive Welfare provides a comprehensive examination of social policy in the Southern African context. Harnessing interdisciplinary insights from various sociological fields, it challenges the conventional welfare approaches that have proven inadequate for the complex realities of the region.

This volume outlines critical aspects that must be understood and addressed to build welfare systems capable of responding to Southern Africa's intensifying polycrisis, which encompasses climate breakdown, poverty, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and deepening governance challenges. Organised across six thematic parts, the book moves from theoretical and political foundations through empirical analyses of specific policy domains towards a synthetic conclusion, highlighting how social policy challenges and innovations manifest across diverse political, ecological, and socio-economic contexts. Each part demonstrates the systemic character of transformative social policy, an outcome that cannot be achieved without confronting the political economy of donor dependency and the epistemological conditions under which social policy knowledge is produced.

With empirical case studies and analyses drawn primarily from contributions within the region, this book will be of great interest to students and academics of social policy and social welfare, as well as development practitioners, civil society organisations, humanitarian agencies, and policymakers.

Leading experts illustrate that Africa's energy landscape is defined by a paradox of abundant renewable resources alongside severe energy poverty, requiring a transition rooted in justice, inclusivity and strategic industrial policy. They argue that, if the continent adopts context-specific policies, attracts equitable financing and strengthens regional cooperation, it could become a potential leader in global energy transition. Assessing diverse case studies, authors advocate for an integrated approach to enable Africa to build a resilient low-carbon future on its own terms, bridging the gap between high-level policy analysis and on-the-ground technical implementation.

Enlightening and incisive, this Handbook is an invaluable tool for academics and students in energy studies, African studies, development economics and environmental policy. Policymakers and government advisors will likewise benefit from its innovative and pragmatic recommendations for the future.

By taking an ecosystem approach to emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), this book gathers the scientific evidence outlining the origins of EIDs to show how a landscape-based ecosystem approach can lead to policy alternatives that draw on the expertise of planning for future pandemic prevention and management.

Global EIDs are one of the world's fastest-growing challenges to local health and are often able to cross large distances. The book targets the substantial "unknowns" surrounding these dangerous characteristics and outlines how current debates about pandemics overlook important characteristics of both the microscopic evolution of viruses themselves, and the social and economic systems through which they move from localized outbreak to global pandemic. Using accessible language, it highlights how planners can help advance and shape policy directions; and how investments in technologies, people, and institutions can be beneficial. Chapters emphasize the importance of creating methods of analysis able to detail very-long-term risks, and therefore suggest actionable and affordable preventative planning today for pandemics predicted decades from now. In doing so, they detail how the intersection of two planning fields of expertise - land use planning and transportation planning - can be enlisted in the fight against future pandemic risk.

Summarizing evidence from past pandemics and using case examples, this book provides future planners with innovative ideas to help the field efficiently understand core health ideas that align with planning expertise. This book is essential for graduate students in urban planning and public health courses, as well as all built environment professionals and practitioners tasked with reducing the risks of the next pandemic.

This book delves into the enduring legacy and evolving relevance of the resource-based view (RBV) in strategic management and marketing. Since Professor Jay Barney's groundbreaking 1991 paper on RBV and sustained competitive advantage, this framework has dominated strategic management research and practice for over three decades, influencing adjacent fields such as marketing. However, in today's rapidly shifting global business environment, where traditional strategies are increasingly replaced by innovative and adaptive approaches, the RBV's continued relevance is under scrutiny. This book addresses the critical question of whether RBV theory remains a viable tool for achieving sustained competitive advantage or if it has reached the limits of its applicability. By examining resource-based dynamics from diverse marketing management perspectives, the book offers fresh theoretical and practical insights into the future potential of RBV to drive competitive advantage for firms and their products.

This book is an essential resource for students, academics, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of strategic management, marketing, and business strategy. It is particularly relevant for those interested in exploring how firms can leverage their resources to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing global marketplace.

The chapters in this book were originally published in Journal of Strategic Marketing.

Corporate Tax Avoidance in China addresses a critical gap in understanding taxation within the world's second-largest economy. As China undergoes rapid economic transformation, its increasingly sophisticated tax system has attracted attention from international investors seeking opportunities in this dynamic market. Yet few books offer students, academics, and practitioners a comprehensive guide to the forces shaping corporate tax avoidance in China.

This volume fills that gap through six complementary chapters investigating novel determinants spanning geographic, technological, organizational, and regulatory dimensions. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, the book examines how local information environments, institutional infrastructures, individual leader characteristics, and cross-domain policy interactions collectively shape corporate tax outcomes, reflecting the increasing diversity of contemporary tax research in China.

This prestigious reference work offers students, academics, and business professionals, whether from Western companies or developing countries, an authoritative introduction to corporate tax avoidance in the world's most dynamic emerging market, essential for those doing business with Chinese firms or establishing subsidiaries in China.

The Handbook of Brand Management Scales is a concise, clear, and easy-to-use collection of scales in brand management. Scales are a critical tool for researchers measuring consumer insights, emotions, and responses.

This second edition has been comprehensively updated throughout to reflect the latest developments in the field. A variety of new scales have been introduced, representing a diverse set of new phenomena such as brand engagement, ambivalent and negative emotions towards brands, brand authenticity, brand ethics, and brand responsibility. Each scale is accompanied by a clear definition of the construct that it is designed to measure, a description of the scale and guidance on its use, an account of its development and psychometric properties, and a discussion of its managerial applications.

An updated, much-needed reference point, this unique and convenient volume will be a valuable resource for students, academics, and professionals conducting empirical research in brand management.

By thinking differently about audit, this exciting book establishes that the conceptual core of audit itself is the art of thinking differently: the making of those new connections that inspire the creativity and confidence to challenge established thinking and provide actionable insight. Audit is reconceptualised as a vital, creative, engine of progress - in society, the economy, the environment and in the appropriate use of technology. Progress requires confidence in the future. Audit addresses whether an audited entity is deserving of confidence and capable of developing - with deserved confidence flowing from creativity, sustainability, resilience and fair treatment. Audit becomes a form of social conscience, responding to, evaluating and influencing the ideas and ideals that a society or an entity within a society holds dear.

Through such framing, audit no longer observes from the sidelines but drives progress in business and society more generally. Whilst audit's traditional notions of conformity, control and compliance can be readily captured by a machine, the insight, imagination and inspiration that comes from thinking differently is fundamentally human. In this respect, the future of audit and of humanity converge. This book is not just for auditors and accountants concerned about the future of their profession but is an invitation to all with an interest in the future well-being of business and society to reformulate how they view audit.

In an era where sustainability shapes the global agenda, The Evolution of Sustainability Accounting Education contributes to our understanding of the role of ac counting as a social practice rooted in public interest. This timely volume explores the urgent need to integrate sustainability into accounting curricula, addressing the social, economic, and environmental imperatives driving this transformation. From mapping the academic landscape of sustainability accounting to examining its impact on public sector accountability and corporate governance, this book of fers cutting-edge research and practical insights from leading experts. It addresses innovative pedagogical approaches, such as experiential learning and mobile learn ing, to prepare future accountants for the complexities of a sustainability-driven world.

Aimed at academics, students, researchers, and professionals, this book serves as an essential resource for those committed to advancing sustainability in account ing education. By highlighting real-world case studies, such as the FTX collapse, and exploring Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks, it un derscores the critical intersection of ethics, accountability, and sustainability. The Evolution of Sustainability Accounting Education is not just a call to action; it is a wake-up call to reimagine accounting education and foster a more equitable and sustainable future.

Alberto J. Costa, PhD in Accounting, is a Professor at the University of Aveiro (Institute of Accounting and Administration, ISCA-UA), where he teaches ac counting and business ethics, as well as accounting and management control. He is the head of the master's degree in accounting and management control. He is a full researcher at GOVCOPP (Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies, University of Aveiro), a certified accountant in Portugal, and a member of GRUDIS-Portuguese Network of Accounting Research. He develops research in the fields of financial accounting, management accounting, accounting education, and business and accounting ethics. He has published papers in national and international journals and edited books with Taylor & Francis.

Margarida M. Pinheiro is a Professor at the University of Aveiro (Institute of Accounting and Administration, ISCA-UA) and a full researcher at the Research Centre on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers (CIDTFF), within the Policies, Evaluation, and Quality research group. With a PhD in Social Sciences, her work focuses on higher education management, quality assurance, and innovative teaching methodologies, particularly in accounting, finance, and marketing. She has published extensively in books, peer-reviewed journals, and international conferences, contributing to the advancement of accounting educa tion and its integration with sustainability. Professor Pinheiro has coordinated international technical-scientific projects, including under Erasmus, and actively participates in scientific committees, editorial roles, and academic event organi zation. Her research and professional activities emphasize collaboration and in novation in teaching, making her well suited to edit these volumes. Through her work, she seeks to support educators, researchers, and professionals in exploring the role of sustainability in reshaping accounting education for a more responsi ble future.

A subsequent analysis of EU law and case law on data protection and AI governance reveals that the 'right to explanation' has gradually been strengthened. However, the ongoing discussion about XAI tools is still largely ignored. Legislation is therefore far from satisfactory and leaves citizens seeking explanations empty-handed. This book analyses the debates in the machine learning community and how they could inform legislation and regulation. It thereby bridges computer science and law and helps reduce the disconnect between the two communities.

AI Transparency & Explainability is a pivotal resource for scholars and students of the connections between technology law and machine learning. AI regulators and government policymakers will similarly benefit from its interdisciplinary scope.