Feminist Digital Methods redefines the role of methods in research, pedagogy, and activism in an increasingly digitized world. Grounded in intersectional feminist epistemologies, the volume challenges the neoliberal fetishization of "methodological rigor" over ethical and political accountability. It frames methods as situated, socially embedded enactments shaped by historical, cultural, and material contexts. Contributors-spanning early-career scholars, practitioners, and activists-critically reflect on the tools, platforms, and approaches they use, highlighting how feminist digital methods can interrogate power, dismantle systemic exclusions, and create transformative pathways for research and activism. With chapters on algorithmic bias, crip epistemologies, feminist data visualization, social media ethics, multispecies GIS, and feminist game design, the book bridges theoretical debates and actionable practice. It is a resource for anyone seeking to combine digital tools with feminist commitments to care, justice, and reciprocity.

This book explores the evolving nature of economic and social policy in the United Kingdom over the last decade.

The book relies on a computational, text-as-data, analysis of thousands of official documents produced by the British government between 1983 and 2024. The primary focus is on understanding evolutions in the recent, post-2016, period, and in particular on how this period may differ from previous eras. Three key conclusions emerge: First, the rise of a more activist, interventionist, and state-led approach to economic policy; second, the parallel rise of a distinctive form of activism in social policy; and third, the rise of a host of institutions designed to constrain and outsource the authority of the executive, which was already underway before 2016. The take-away point is that the United Kingdom has moved, in the second part of the 2010s, to a post-neoliberal model that has its own internal logic and is supported by its own distinctive set of institutions.

The book will be of great interest to readers in political economy, political science, public policy, and quantitative research methods.

This book examines how Ukraine's agricultural system can move from resource-intensive production toward more sustainable, resilient, and agroecological pathways. It shows why this transition matters not only for Ukraine, but also for global food security.

Combining agricultural economics, environmental governance, and resource management, the volume offers an integrated account of the forces reshaping Ukrainian agriculture. It analyzes the country's natural resource base-chernozem soils, water systems, forests, and biodiversity-alongside the historical evolution of farming structures, land policy, and the environmental and social trade-offs of industrial agriculture. It also situates these issues within the wider context of war, post-war recovery, and the strategic choices that will shape the future of Ukrainian agriculture. The book addresses soil degradation, nutrient imbalances, pollution, war-related contamination, climate risks, and landscape fragmentation, while also examining how digital and precision technologies, sustainability metrics, data systems, reporting frameworks, climate finance, and scenario analysis can support a more governable transition. By linking environmental diagnosis with policy design, investment priorities, and institutional change, the book offers readers a clear framework for understanding both the vulnerabilities of the current model and the pathways to long-term agricultural resilience.

This book will appeal to scholars, students, policymakers, and practitioners in agricultural economics, environmental policy, sustainable development, rural studies, and food system governance.

In an era where evidence-based policymaking defines the credibility of governance, Value of Statistical Life in India offers a landmark contribution to the economics of risk, labour welfare, and regulatory design. This ground-breaking volume presents one of the most rigorous empirical estimations of the Value of Statistical Life (VSL) in the Indian context, addressing a critical gap in public policy analytics.

Focusing on occupational risks within India's manufacturing sector-particularly in Gujarat- the book systematically examines compensating wage differentials (CWD), insurance mechanisms, and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) frameworks. Through advanced econometric modelling and a global meta-analysis using mixed-effects regression techniques, the authors situate Indian VSL estimates within international standards, aligning domestic policy discourse with practices in developed economies such as the United States.

Transcending descriptive analysis, the book offers a robust analytical foundation for cost-benefit evaluation, regulatory impact assessment, environmental risk governance, and labour protection reforms. By advocating the institutional adoption of VSL as a cornerstone of policy appraisal, it provides a transformative framework for integrating economic valuation into safety and health legislation.

Scholarly, in depth and strategic in relevance, this volume is indispensable for academics, policymakers, multilateral agencies, and regulatory authorities committed to strengthening risk governance and advancing labour welfare in emerging economies.

Centered on Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, this book interrogates the complex entanglements between extractivism, state power, class formation, and geopolitical reorientation in North Africa. While the global energy transition promises economic diversification and sustainable development, the international contributors to this volume show how "green extractivism" often reproduces older structures of dependency and inequality, and therefore authoritarianism consolidates.

Rather than fostering transformation, rent economies adapt, stabilize, and reconfigure themselves through new sources of rent and new modes of social control. The book makes three core contributions. First, it offers a historically grounded and theoretically informed understanding of rent economies in the Maghreb, tracing how colonial legacies of resource extraction evolved into postcolonial patterns of rentier governance. Second, it introduces a class-analytical perspective to debates on extractivism, arguing that rent not only finances authoritarian regimes, but also shapes dynamic social coalitions, "state classes," and cycles of contention and co-optation. Third, the book develops a comparative approach to the political economy of green transformation, focusing on the interplay between domestic rent regimes and external pressures from global markets, international donors, and climate politics. By anchoring each case study in concrete struggles, everyday experiences, and contested claims to resources, the book reveals how global transformations are mediated, resisted, and reappropriated from the following.

The book will be vital reading for those interested in political economy, development studies, and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) studies. It will particularly appeal to scholars working on extractivism, rentier states, authoritarianism, postcolonial development, and the political sociology of class and class struggle.

This book highlights the pivotal role of water infrastructure as the bridge between water availability, supply, and stability, essential for achieving water security. Water Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Digitalization and Sustainability of Water Infrastructure focuses on three strategic areas: digitalization, sustainability, and investment paradigms for water infrastructure. Its goal is to achieve and stabilize water security in Sub-Saharan Africa through transformative infrastructure solutions.

This book seeks to address the challenges of water scarcity by advancing water security in Sub-Saharan Africa through sustainable digital water infrastructure. It develops comprehensive frameworks that integrate digitalization and sustainability principles into water infrastructure design and management. Beginning with an exploration of water security dynamics and underpinning theories, the book examines the concept of water infrastructure through case studies. Using the Delphi technique, it proposes a sustainability framework encompassing cleaner production, water efficiency, green infrastructure, and the circular water economy. Additionally, the book explores the integration of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Blockchain, into water infrastructure. These advancements culminate in a synthesized framework for sustainable digitalization, which is analyzed across various investment paradigms, considering urban-rural dynamics.

This groundbreaking book is the first to comprehensively integrate digitalization and sustainability into water infrastructure management. It aims to support informed decision-making for achieving water security in Africa. By offering cost-effective solutions for water operations and maintenance, real-time monitoring, and strategies for water efficiency, the book promotes optimal water allocation and improved water quality. Furthermore, it seeks to reshape and repurpose water-related policies, aligning them with digital and sustainability principles to enhance their effectiveness. The book also outlines strategies for attracting critical investments to the water sector, providing a roadmap for sustainable water security in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This book is a must-have for policy makers, investors, researchers and practitioners within the water sector for optimal utilization and security of water resources.

Public finance is often considered a discipline where numbers, efficiency, and productivity talk. And while gender budgeting, a field of public financial management (PFM), has gained increasing attention in recent years, the personal stories of the women driving this work have remained largely invisible. This is the first book to share unprecedented insider narratives from the women shaping public finance and public policy.

It brings together the stories and conversations of 22 professional women from around the globe who are all working in the fields of PFM and gender budgeting, a space largely dominated by men. These authentic first-person accounts provide rare insights into both the barriers and breakthroughs experienced by women in a field traditionally dominated by technical discourse and masculine perspectives. It demonstrates how women's presence at decision-making tables directly opens the discussions on inclusive, sustainable, and effective public finance outcomes. It provides:

• Authentic insights into gender representation in PFM and how it can be advanced within the structures of public finance-from ministries of finance to donor agencies and civil society.
• Encouragement and strategic guidance in navigating leadership, reform fatigue, and institutional resistance, particularly women and underrepresented groups.
• A storytelling approach, helping readers to relate to this largely technical area.
• Concrete examples of successful reform and personal stories of resilience, valuable for professionals creating capacity-building programs, applying change management, or shaping institutional culture.

This important book is for public finance professionals, civil servants, economists, gender policy advisors, donor agency staff, civil society organizations, and graduate students in gender studies, public policy, governance, and development programs, providing both inspiration and practical pathways for creating more equitable financial systems worldwide.

Financial Technology: A Comprehensive Introduction offers a comprehensive exploration of one of the most transformative forces in contemporary finance. This essential guide explains how FinTech is fundamentally reshaping financial transactions, institutional operations, and global financial engagement.

Blending theory with practical insights, the book traces FinTech's history and examines its influence across modern financial institutions, including banks, insurers, investment houses, and central banks. It introduces readers to the technologically driven evolution of financial markets, encompassing crypto-assets, algorithmic trading, and decentralised finance. The book further examines cutting-edge tools such as artificial intelligence, Regulatory Technology, advanced digital payment systems, and central bank digital currencies, all presented with clarity and analysis. Each chapter features learning objectives, practical case studies, and discussion questions to encourage deeper understanding and critical thinking.

Designed for students, financial professionals, policymakers, and investors, Financial Technology: A Comprehensive Introduction balances accessibility with depth. Serving as both an authoritative guide and strategic framework, this book equips readers to navigate the rapidly evolving financial technology landscape and understand the complexities ahead.

Sustainable development has become a defining challenge of the 21st century, driven by climate change, environmental degradation, and the global initiatives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. These issues have gained urgency not only because of rising global awareness of environmental, social, and financial concerns, but also due to the growing significance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks-particularly for banks and markets. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the definitions, trends, and regulatory approaches to ESG risk in the banking sector. It examines how banks develop strategies for managing ESG risks, and how stock, bond, and credit markets respond to such risks, including the implications of regulatory changes. Company size, geographical location, and industry characteristics are analysed as key factors shaping these dynamics. By combining a review of current regulations and initiatives with practical perspectives on ESG risk management, the book offers both theoretical and applied insights. It provides readers with tools to calculate and assess ESG risk, understand the factors influencing investment decisions, and evaluate measures associated with ESG risk in relation to capital requirements in banks. It also explains how to assess green investments, interpret nonfinancial statements, and follow the evolving legal frameworks governing ESG ratings and disclosures. This book is designed for academics, researchers, and students in finance, economics, sustainable and green investing, risk management, banking, nonfinancial reporting, and financial law. The practical implications also make it highly valuable for regulators, supervisors, and practitioners engaged in sustainability-oriented policymaking or in the day-to-day management of ESG risks, particularly within financial institutions.

In the era of ubiquitous computing and the Internet of things, is it still possible to go, or be, offline? Can we still find a more embedded, autonomous, and attentive way of being, away from the constant distraction of our phones and screens? Or is it time to reconcile ourselves to a future, where every thought and action is mediated by an algorithm?You Can Never Go Offline Again is an autoethnographic search for an elsewhere to the Internet. It chronicles the author's weekend digital detoxes, travels to Internet blackout zones, efforts at mindful consumption, and daily struggles to reign in his online activities, concluding that today there is no longer a meaningful distinction between online and off. The two have merged into one intermediated reality. Integrating literary memoir with anthropology, media studies, and philosophy, it takes stock of our digitally-saturated moment and attempts to chart a path forward. Written in accessible prose and illustrated with evocative photography, You Can Never Go Offline Again is essential reading for students and researchers of digital culture and anyone struggling to carve out a space for the in-person and face-to-face at a time when online has already become the default mode of being.

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.