Contributing authors investigate how MLM schemes create legitimacy by merging commerce, community and belief, while consumer protection is undermined through opaque business practices, weak regulations and industry lobbying. Chapters outline how MLM has created its own ecosystem of self-employment, masquerading as entrepreneurial freedom while advertising false autonomy and ensuring that few participants ever achieve meaningful economic reward. By emphasising participant experiences and tracing the entanglements of ideology, regulation and organisational strategy, this book advances Critical MLM Studies as a framework for understanding MLM as a global industry.

Presenting MLMs as frequently destructive and harmful, Critical Perspectives on Multilevel Marketing is an essential resource for scholars and students of business, economics and finance, management studies, marketing and consumer law. Consumer protection agencies and MLM activists will also benefit from its evidence-based approach.

Gregory demonstrates how neoliberalism and the current polycrisis intensify temporal inequalities and narrow the horizons of welfare, obscuring diverse lived experiences necessary for flourishing. Using time theory, concepts of alterity, equality and citizenship, and policy design, he proposes new conceptual tools, such as time sovereignty and temporal impact assessment, to rethink welfare for a world of uncertainty and urgent social need. The book argues that modern welfare systems ignore the lived rhythms of care, waiting, ageing, uncertainty and generational futures, and instead are built around speed and short-term politics. It outlines and argues for imaginative, rigorous and future-oriented welfare systems that create time for dignity, autonomy, care and collective well-being in uncertain times.

Time, Welfare and Society is an essential resource for scholars and students of sociology, social work and social policy. Social workers and policymakers will likewise benefit from its radical lens.

The first quarter of the 21st century has witnessed numerous reform efforts related to schooling and education. At the same time, across the world, many education systems are facing unprecedented challenges related to teachers, from rising teacher attrition and burnout to recruitment difficulties-symptoms of a world that is changing and evolving: a world in transition.

This book asks: How have teachers' experiences and environments evolved alongside educational reform? How have expectations of teachers changed? and what are the consequences of such change? Through studies spanning ten countries across multiple continents, it examines how societal and political transitions are transforming teachers' daily lives and professional identities. By centering teachers' lived experiences within their national contexts, it reveals striking parallels in global educational transformation despite unique contexts of change. These perspectives, individually and collectively, allow us to understand recent transformations and educational reform efforts, meet teachers impacted by these changes, and see how transitions impact teachers' experience of the profession internationally.

Combining original empirical research and comparative analysis, this book offers timely insights for researchers and students interested in international and comparative education, foundations of education, teacher education, education policy, and educational leadership.

Over the past three decades, Central and Eastern Europe has experienced rapid economic transformation, accelerated by accession to the European Union and deeper integration into global financial markets. While improved access to credit has supported rising living standards, it has also increased households' exposure to financial fragility when economic shocks occur.

This book investigates the financial fragility of households in the region, offering new insights into how households cope with economic shocks and structural change. Despite shared experience of post-socialist transformation, Central and Eastern European countries display significant economic, social, and institutional diversity. This raises important questions: Do households across the region differ in their levels of financial fragility? Which socio-demographic groups are most vulnerable? What factors shape household resilience to economic shocks?

Combining conceptual discussion with comparative empirical analysis, the book examines the determinants and dynamics of household financial fragility across the region. It explores changes in household financial conditions - including consumption patterns, debt dynamics, savings behaviour, and subjective financial well-being - and identifies cross-country differences in vulnerability using comparative and cluster-based approaches. The analysis also discusses how external shocks, including the global financial crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic, have shaped household financial stability. By linking structural transformation, institutional context, and household-level outcomes, the book fills an important gap in the literature and offers new insights into the challenges of strengthening household resilience in the face of economic shocks.

This book will be of interest to researchers, policymakers, and students in economics, finance, consumer economics, and European studies who seek a deeper understanding of household financial fragility in Central and Eastern Europe.

The right business model is essential for success in a fast-moving and interconnected world, and it starts with concept development.

The Company Soul is the in-depth manual to building and executing strategy amidst complex external and internal driving forces. Building on the foundation of his first book, international business leader and consultant Staffan Heden clarifies and expands his unique business model framework, showing how to create, build, and retain value while strengthening relationships with all stakeholders. The book offers important insights on navigating a tumultuous sociopolitical and economic environment, dealing with issues such as regional conflicts, cyber risk, climate change, and AI and other technological developments. Introducing the tools SETAI and SOAP, it presents a detailed roadmap for alternative paths for product and service development, recognizing the need for global organizations to constantly map new customer groups, find new ways to sell and price their products, and set up new collaborations.

This thought-provoking book is an ideal resource for owners, board members, and managers at medium to large companies, as well as MBA and advanced business students.

This comprehensive guide reveals how to systematically identify and capture cross-selling and up-selling opportunities, whether through internal transformation, organisational consolidation or merger and acquisition scenarios. By understanding the fundamental principles of revenue expansion and cost optimisation at the same time, business leaders can dramatically improve their company's value proposition while strengthening market position.

Every business professional will encounter organisational change - whether through M&A activity during economic booms or internal restructuring during downturns. These pivotal moments present extraordinary opportunities to simultaneously increase sales and reduce costs, yet most organisations fail to maximise their potential. This book provides the strategic framework and practical tools needed to excel during these critical transitions, showing how to plan and implement cross-selling initiatives that deliver substantial revenue growth while streamlining operations for maximum efficiency. Drawing from real-world M&A scenarios and internal transformation case studies, this guide demonstrates how to improve profit from both ends of the equation. You will learn to identify cross-selling opportunities that others miss, develop implementation strategies that minimise disruption and create sustainable revenue streams that outlast the initial organisational change.

Whether you are leading a merger integration, managing a divisional consolidation or simply seeking to optimise your current sales approach, this book provides the insights and methodologies to transform organisational complexity into competitive advantage and measurable profit improvement.

How did India's states confront the challenge of COVID-19? And what insights does this experience offer for future crisis response?

This book explores the varied impacts of the pandemic and the policy responses undertaken across India's states and union territories, bringing together nationwide quantitative analysis with five in-depth case studies of Bihar, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Moving beyond the numbers, the case studies examine how differences in state capacity, legitimacy, and authority shaped policy responses and pandemic outcomes. Focusing on the first two waves of the pandemic, the volume shows how this early period provides a valuable snapshot of state functioning under crisis conditions-marked by profound uncertainty and limited information.

This volume offers new insight into one of the most consequential global crises of our time. It is important reading for students and scholars of public policy, political science, economics, and South Asian studies. It will also engage policymakers, journalists, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the factors that influence how states respond when it matters most.

Leadership in Global Health outlines the essential leadership principles that transform promising health interventions into global movements, offering a timely and compelling blueprint for leaders seeking to drive lasting, scalable change.

Grounded in decades of lessons from global health successes and failures, and illustrated through deeply analyzed, real-world case studies, the book reveals what happens when leadership meets coordinated action. These stories- from the eradication of smallpox and the large-scale delivery of malaria bed nets to the community-based innovations of Ethiopia's Health Extension Program and the lightning-fast COVID-19 vaccine rollout-show how leadership in global health is not one-size-fits-all, but rather dynamic, responsive, and deeply human. In an era where complex health challenges range from emerging pandemics to enduring inequities, the book centers the role of leadership-strategic, adaptive, and collaborative-as the critical engine for scaling health interventions, offering readers not only compelling narratives from the field, but also practical tools and reflections which give the book a forward-looking focus.

Building to offer a roadmap for developing the next generation of global health leaders equipped to thrive in multi-sectoral, rapidly evolving environments, it will be essential reading for students, scholars, and practitioners across Global Health, Public Health, Leadership and Development Studies.

Pluralism and Progress in Economics analyzes the dynamics of growth research by introducing the concept of research routines - meso-level patterns of communal practice functionally coordinated by symbolic representations.

This book tracks the development of neoclassical growth theory through four distinct stages: exploration, extension, elaboration, and exploitation. It argues that scientific change in growth research is a processual development driven by diaphoric learning, where a community of researchers creatively uses existing conceptual tools to grasp previously unrecognized causal dependencies in data. This book further evaluates the conceptions of scientific progress, identifying the limitations of conventional criteria in distinguishing genuine advancement in economics from analytical "game-playing." Pawel Kawalec proposes an ontic criterion of intensive progress, which validates an emergent research routine based on its isolation of ontologically novel causal structures. By distinguishing between derivational and ontological unification, and drawing on Robert Solow's criteria of model choice, this book defends progressive pluralism and piecemeal realism. It concludes that the coexistence of diverse models is not a sign of relativism but a mature response to the world's ontic complexity, providing a robust "library of models" essential for contextualized economic applications.

This book will be of interest to experts and graduate students specializing in economic growth models, the history of twentieth-century economics, the history and philosophy of science, and science and technology studies.

The contributing authors explore the definitions of creativity and how it can be cultivated in school systems: at the level of individual pupils, teachers, the classroom, school leaders and the wider community. Chapters span global contexts, exploring approaches to curriculum design, teaching methods, assessment and professional learning. Evaluating strategic and practical approaches, this Handbook presents cutting-edge research into the implementation and development of creativity in schools.

This Handbook is a crucial resource for scholars and students of education policy, teaching, learning, assessment and educational administration. It will also benefit practitioners in education seeking a toolkit for introducing and improving creativity across all disciplines.

This book explores epistemic injustice in various aspects of social work practice, research, and education, and how those in the field can address issues of power, oppression, and institutionalized prejudice.

This edited volume invites social work scholars, educators, practitioners, and students to deeply engage in the conversation about social justice and human rights on epistemic grounds. It begins with a simple but profound question: Whose knowledge counts, and whose voices are silenced? Bridging the gap between theory and practice, this book contextualizes epistemic injustice concepts such as testimonial, hermeneutical, and contributory justice across diverse social work settings to help readers better recognize when and how these concepts manifest in the profession and how to address them from an epistemic justice lens. The chapters span a range of issues relevant to the field, including health and mental health, transformative social work, and the inclusion of systemically marginalized voices in practice and research such as LGBTQIA+, disabled communities, and street-involved. Contributors draw on their first-hand experience teaching social work students and practicing and researching with culturally diverse communities across settings. Each chapter invites readers to consider and reimagine ways of resisting epistemic injustice in their work and how social workers can join in collective resistance in the epistemic domains of the profession.

With case studies and practical examples throughout, this book is essential for social work students, educators, researchers, and practitioners of all levels. This guide serves both as a mirror to reflect the challenges within the profession and as a roadmap to chart pathways toward a more just, inclusive, and epistemically responsible field.

This timely Advanced Introduction analyses the European Union's innovation policy on smart specialisation strategies (S3). Dominique Foray and Jan-Philipp Kramer clarify the S3 theory, outlining its core concepts and assessing policy progress at regional and national levels.

Key Features:

• Explains how S3 concepts challenge traditional innovation policy theory
• Connects academic theory with practical insights, providing a foundation of evidence regarding the history of S3 strategies
• Proposes suggestions for effective smart specialisation policymaking based on novel quantitative and qualitative assessments

The Advanced Introduction to Smart Specialisation Strategies is a key resource for scholars and students of economics, finance, innovation and technology. S3 policymakers and development professionals will similarly benefit from its astute perspective and actionable recommendations.

This book offers an in-depth analysis of the failures of the UK's defence acquisition and procurement process, and the broader ramifications for the UK's national security.

The UK's record on defence acquisition and procurement constitutes one of the biggest British public policy scandals of the modern era - albeit one largely concealed from voters and taxpayers. Its recent history is characterised by high levels of incompetence, weak governance and a lack of proper accountability; defects compounded by a 'conspiracy of optimism' that things will turn out differently simply through the power of wishful thinking. Focusing largely on events since 1997, this book provides the first detailed assessment of the failures of this period and compares them with the performance of overseas counterparts, such as the United States, France, Australia and Canada. By focusing on a wide variety of expensive and technically disastrous case studies across all services and domains, the book seeks to highlight some of the key lessons that recent history has provided about the complex network of interrelated factors that have led to so many disappointments and failures in British military procurement. As such it demonstrates how these problems have affected UK national security and its military and diplomatic standing in a volatile and uncertain world.

This book will be of much interest to students of British politics, defence studies, strategic studies and International Relations

As a translation from L'aborto. Una storia, through the tools of political, social and cultural history, this volume traces the history of abortion practices in Italy through the 20th and 21st centuries.

In 1978 the Italian Parliament approved Law 194, decriminalising abortion practices with precise rules. The law marked a deep break with the past, repealing Title X of the fascist-era penal code. This volume talks about the past, going far beyond the mere history of the law, starting from an innovative periodisation that, while focusing on post-WWII Italy (to the present), highlights continuities and ruptures within the liberal age and particularly within the fascist regime.

History of Abortion in Italy: From Fascism to Present will be of appeal to historians of political history; historians of European fascisms; historians of criminology interested in comparative history, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students, and to readers interested in understanding abortion rights and reproductive health in a global dimension.

Rented Worlds examines the hidden yet ubiquitous world of bedsits, boarding houses, service flats, subdivided terraces, and other forms of private rented housing that continued to dominate post-war London, numerically as well as culturally, well into the 1960s.

While the rise of council housing and suburban homeownership have both been thoroughly documented, it was this other kind of housing - declining yet highly contested - that formed the ideological substrate of many key debates about the post-war politics of welfare, 'race,' class, and gender. Covering from the end of the Second World War to the end of the first post-war Conservative government, and drawing on a range of untapped archival sources, including rent tribunals, valuation lists, exhibitions, and photography, the book traces a sequence of specific 'problems' as they coincided with key moments in post-war British history: from the 1946 squatting movement and the problem of displacement after the Blitz; to the question of social isolation and new policies around mental health; to the chronic issue of overcrowding and a growing fire safety crisis in inner London.

Told through the experience of tenants and proprietors, this new history of post-war London challenges architectural history's ability to account for the unexpected after-lives of built spaces; spaces that were re-made from the inside out through processes of speculation, regulation, and grassroots spatial practices.

Amid global dialogue on the nature of human enhancement, this book traces humanity's pursuit of self- transcendence and enhancement from ancient times to the present, as reflected in diverse traditions across the globe.

The book examines how the term 'transhuman' can move beyond its scientific and technological origins by linking it to ideas, symbols, and practices of transcending human limits found in Asian and global religions and philosophies, including spiritual practices. It critically explores human enhancement in its various forms and considers the potential for complementarity or cooperation between traditions by situating perspectives on the Divine Human and the Transhuman within a comprehensive conceptual framework. Chapters delve into Indian Tantric, Yogic, and Buddhist Tantric views on enhancement, highlighting the intersections and divergences between transhumanist ideas and enhancement discourses in world philosophies and religions. Ultimately, the book argues that many religions in Asia and beyond emphasize the desire to transcend human limits, addressing life enhancement both spiritually and physically and advancing a philosophy of self-transcendence that embraces the physical nature of human existence.

By bridging perspectives from scholars of Indic spirituality, Buddhist tantric, and transhumanist philosophical discourse, the book facilitates the ability for mutual understanding and will be of use to researchers studying philosophy of religion, Asian philosophy, the philosophy of science, and philosophical anthropology. Those working in the fields of posthumanism and transhumanism studies will also find the volume useful.

Whose Water? The Control and Appropriation of Water Resources in Medieval Hungary addresses conflicts surrounding water management, a space where different economic and other socio-political interests meet and sometimes clash. The geographical space that it focuses on is the Kingdom of Hungary, and the time frame is the period from the foundation of the Christian state around the year 1000 to the late medieval period.

Modern politics focuses on who has legitimate claims in water-related disputes, but for historians, it is certainly more relevant to understand how such conflicts were approached and resolved in the past. These questions include what kind of disputes unfolded concerning water use; to what degree water was conceived as a private or common good; and how different interests were aligned with each other. Throughout the book's chapters, it is argued that the use of water by the societies of the Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages gave rise to complex sets of customs and norms that, until the modern era, were the most important principles for settling water-use disputes.

Whose Water? The Control and Appropriation of Water Resources in Medieval Hungary will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental and landscape history, as well as those studying the legal and urban history of premodern Europe.

In response, the authors reconceptualize DEI management for the SME context and introduce a framework and a set of best practices grounded in the lived realities of SMEs and insights from international surveys, interviews, workshops, and real-world cases from Europe. The book offers teaching cases along with online teaching notes and managerial reflections to equip current and future entrepreneurs and SME managers with the competencies needed to leverage social sustainability, in particular DEI, for a firm's growth, strategy implementation, regulatory compliance, and conflict resolution. The book deepens understanding of intersectionality in SMEs and demonstrates how DEI contributes to advancing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Small and Medium Enterprises is a vital resource for scholars and students of business and management, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Business educators and SME managers will also benefit from its actionable recommendations for effectively incorporating DEI best practices.

This book explores the critical edge of Hans Kelsen's pure theory of law, often muted in doctrinal interpretations, and highlights how Kelsen sought to radically redefine both legal science and legal reality.

The pure theory's foundational concept of the Grundnorm (the basic norm) serves as the unifying thread of this book, demonstrating Kelsen's conviction that any content whatsoever can be law, as he was wary of ideological justifications of any positive legal order. While Kelsen understood law as a result of material political struggles, he prioritized the normative over the factual and thus slipped into a mystification of his object of cognition. To flesh out the iconoclastic features of Kelsen's thought and the limitations of his neo-Kantian rationality, this book engages with Kelsen's affinity with Friedrich Nietzsche's unruly philosophy. The deconstructive ethos of the pure theory is considered through a parallel reading of Kelsen and Jacques Derrida, demonstrating that the pure theory deploys deconstruction avant la lettre, but is also self-deconstructing. Concluding with a restatement of the Grundnorm, the book provides a fresh perspective on Kelsen's seminal theory and its confrontation with a world in crisis.

The book is intended primarily for scholars and researchers in legal philosophy and jurisprudence, as well as academic audiences in political theory, social sciences, history, and the humanities.

Drawing on predominant theories of legality from Aristotle and Plato to John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin, Papadaki engages with classic debates, including the content of democratic governance and the relationship between law and morality. She argues that substantive pluralism, the foundational element of democratic legality, underlies the entire legal system from private to public law and political theory. The book explores this concept within diverse areas of law, including negligence and affirmative action, while analyzing the potential for artificial intelligence to empower democratic legality in the future.

Democratic Legality is a valuable resource for scholars and students of legal philosophy, legal and political theory, and law and technology. It is also highly beneficial to policy-makers and law-makers seeking to understand how democratic legality contributes to the principles of freedom and equal citizenship.

This collection of specially commissioned essays provides the first incisive collaborative intervention to ongoing debates about law and politics under capitalism from an explicitly socialist constitutionalist perspective.

Heterodox literature on constitutional studies, to a large extent and with a few notable exceptions, shares a rejection of Marxist analytical principles. Moving beyond the formalism and instrumentalism, this volume will engage with the question: what differentiates a Marxist conception of socialist constitutionalism and the role of institutional forms in building socialism, from republican and post-Marxist conceptions? Drawing inspiration from socialist thinkers and historical attempts to build socialism, the contributors explain the relevance of socialist conceptions of democracy and rights for contemporary struggles for social emancipation. They combine historical and theoretical analyses to review socialist constitutional theory and practice, while thinking about the future of democracy and rights in a communist polity. The contributions deal with a variety of topical issues, including the relationship between state, law, and society; the relationship between constitutional law and revolutionary social change; right as legal superstructure and right as a form of social consciousness; the ethical grounds of communism; socialist conceptions of right; and principles for a socialist constitutionalism.

Consolidating Marxist approaches to public law and constitutional theory, Socialist Constitutionalism and the Communist Polity offers both a rigorous contribution to the elaboration of Marxist theory and a re-examination of foundational constitutional concepts, questions, and debates that will help to orient non-specialist readers

Hate Speech, Political Correctness, and Cancel Culture critically examines the challenges posed by modern discourse in democratic societies. It explores the intersection of hate speech, political correctness, cancel culture, and disinformation, and offers a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective on their ethical, legal, and societal implications.

Delving into the complexities of contemporary communication, the book addresses pressing issues such as the rise of cancel culture, the evolution of political correctness, and the proliferation of disinformation and fake news in the digital age. It investigates how these phenomena impact freedom of speech, democratic values and social ethics, while also exploring their influence on identity politics, public opinion, polarization and the integrity of democratic elections. With contributions from leading scholars from a range of academic and geographical backgrounds, the book provides critical insights into topics like antisemitism, hate speech targeting refugees, judicial stereotyping, online speech, and the regulation of AI-driven disinformation. Through case studies, theoretical analysis, and comparative perspectives, it offers practical solutions for navigating the challenges of misinformation, fostering inclusivity, and balancing freedom of expression with communal responsibilities.

Hate Speech, Political Correctness, and Cancel Culture is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand how modern discourse shapes public life in the digital era. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of politics, philosophy and ethics, media and communication studies, and law. Policymakers and professionals involved in regulating online platforms will also find its discussions on disinformation and technological control highly relevant.

Contributors present a power resource-based, multi-level concept of social rights, assessing their current state in the EU, their relationship to social outcomes and gaps in their functioning. The book diagnoses the shortcomings of the existing social rights and institutional structure that generates undesirable social outcomes and explores topics such as social protection, housing rights or work-life balance. It also studies the social and political demand for change among citizens, including their attitudes and preferences related to the EU social agenda.

The Future of European Social Rights and European Social Citizenship is a crucial resource for scholars and students of European studies, political science and economy, politics and public policy and European social and labour law. It will also benefit practitioners in social rights seeking a deeper understanding of the impact of the EPSR.

Chapters tackle controversial issues that arise from existing policies, such as the continuing challenge of achieving climate goals without generating inequities. They also analyse how the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism will affect exporting countries. Contributors assess theoretical principles and the barriers to their implementation, including the polluter-pays principle, whereby those who damage the environment are responsible for funding climate endeavours, rather than taxpayers. Looking to the future, they present a number of global case studies, with a particular focus on Brazil, to explore strategies for successful mergers between environmental policies and tax systems.

Frontiers in the Low-carbon Transition is an essential resource for scholars, students of law, politics and public policy, sustainable development and others seeking to understand how practical taxation systems can help combat climate change. Environmental law practitioners and NGO professionals will similarly benefit from its actionable suggestions.

This volume examines the evolution of criminal policy, focusing on penal policy in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries from the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the present and analysing the policy decisions, regulations, and specific conditions that have influenced these developments.

The chapters analyse penal policy across ten countries, highlighting the principal characteristics of each nation's approach and examining their differences, with particular attention to criminal law, criminalization, sentencing practices, and criminal justice. Focusing on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bulgaria, the Czechia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the book demonstrates how state responses to crime and penal policy have evolved and provides insight into the underlying processes and significant events that have driven these changes.

Employing a comparative methodology and incorporating two cross-cutting chapters on penal policy, sentencing practices, and the rise of penal populism, Development of Criminal Policy in Central and Eastern European Countries is intended for students and scholars of criminology, criminal justice, criminal law, and political science.

Jingwen Liu explores key areas and concepts in FRAND cases, including the legal nature and consequences of a FRAND commitment, the transnational and procedural problems surrounding FRAND litigations and economic perspectives of standard setting and FRAND licensing activities. Liu proposes a three-step analytical framework to assess SEP-based injunctions, including a timely examination of the 'willing licensor' and 'willing licensee' tests. The book concludes that the only way to properly address injunction issues is through adopting an expansive interpretation of FRAND, which converts it from a one-off, rate-based requirement to an ongoing, conduct-based principle.

Adopting both a chronological and a jurisdictional approach, The Availability of Standard-Essential Patent-Based Injunctions is a vital resource for scholars and students of intellectual property law and antitrust law. Legal practitioners and policymakers will similarly benefit from its timely recommendations for refining SEP-based injunction assessments.