This edited volume critically examines the role of higher education institutions in the Arab Gulf States in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the context of the region's distinctive resource dependence, environmental vulnerability, and rapid socio-economic transformation. Drawing on original empirical research from across the region, the book analyses how universities are supporting sustainable development through teaching, research, and institutional governance. By combining system-level perspectives with institutional case studies, the volume offers insights into how sustainable development is being interpreted, implemented, and institutionalized within the region's higher education systems and institutions.
The book makes a distinctive contribution by focusing on the Arab Gulf as a highly developed yet under-researched region of the Global South, where universities operate within ambitious state-led sustainability frameworks and post-oil development transitions. Through detailed case studies, the chapters highlight innovative pedagogical and institutional approaches, including project-based learning, living laboratories, and interdisciplinary research collaborations that support progress toward the SDGs. The volume offers policy-relevant and practice-oriented insights for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners concerned with the role of higher education in advancing sustainable development in diverse national and regional contexts.

This book examines the history of the demographics of Cameroon, a country with more than 250 ethnic groups interacting together. It examines the geographical and historical context of ethnic distribution and the advent of urban centres in Cameroon. These ethnic groups have a complex history reflecting their multifaceted culture and this work examines the 'melting pot' of ethnic diversity in present-day Cameroon's urban centres which dates back to the missionary, colonial, and post-colonial eras.

Within these periods, people migrated to urban centres of Limbe, Douala, Yaounde, Maroua, Garoua, etc., for political, economic, and social reasons. This book demonstrates that once Cameroon gained its independence and reunified, the situation grew more complicated. Urban centres gradually became an El Dorado to the immigrants from all the corners of the country, thus promoting the spirit of ethnic melting and national unity. Legislation put into place, in addition to other factors, promoted ethnic mixing as an attempt to promote national unity and integration. However, this phenomenon witnessed in these urban centres could not be attained without challenges, and solutions are the main issues in the present study.

This book analyzes the transformation of development aid and international political thinking from the 1990s to the present. It highlights how aid became increasingly politicized as democracy promotion, governance reform, conflict prevention, and security concerns moved to the center of donor agendas. Focusing on France and the OECD, the book traces how post-Cold War transitions reshaped development policy while donor states continued to navigate the constraints of sovereignty. It examines France's shift from paternalistic postcolonial ties to formal diplomatic relations and its support for African-led peacekeeping initiatives. The book also explores globalization, fragile states, and post-9/11 debates on intervention, human rights, and the evolving meaning of sovereignty, including the emergence of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). Sovereignty remains crucial in balancing globalization, intervention, and national self-determination, while development aid continues to bridge disparities between developed and developing nations. A new preface addresses the end of the liberal international order, the rise of the Global South, and the 2025 dissolution of USAID, offering a timely assessment of development aid's role in a changing world.

This book offers a compelling archaeological exploration of China's millennia-old civilization. It masterfully synthesizes material evidence with classical texts such as The Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), anchored by 15 iconic cultural artifacts. These range from the Jiahu bone flute (a testament to the sophistication of early Chinese musical systems) and the Liangzhu jade cong (a symbol of early political hierarchy and ritual authority) to the Four-Ram Square zun (a masterpiece of Shang Dynasty bronze craftsmanship) and the astronomical lacquer box from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng.

Adopting a rigorous interdisciplinary approach spanning archaeology, history, astronomy, metallurgy, and ritual studies, Peng Lin illuminates the technical ingenuity, cultural traditions, and social structures of ancient China, while highlighting the unity in diversity that shaped the evolution of Chinese civilization. Far from a static exhibition of relics, the book employs a "dual evidence" approach-cross-checking unearthed materials against received texts-to challenge fragmented interpretations of the past. Essential reading for university liberal arts curricula, it offers scholars and general readers alike a nuanced yet accessible lens on the nexus between material culture and the origins of Chinese civilization.

Isaac D. Blois demonstrates the many ways that Paul attempted to shape the emotional orientation of his friends at Philippi, thereby constructing a multifaceted Christian identity that went beyond mere doctrinal content. While Paul famously instructs the Philippian believers to "think" among themselves the same thing that is also "in Christ", Blois suggests that English translations have missed crucial aspects by focusing too much on the logo-centric, intellectual elements of the key term phroneo, while missing the emotional resonance behind this concept. Rather, in order to guide their behaviour, Paul first had to form their affections, training them to feel appropriately toward Christ and his world, so that then they might be able to believe rightly and act correctly within it.

Blois analyses six key emotions arising within the discourse: three positive emotions (joy, pride, and hope), and then three negative emotions (grief, shame, and fear). By situating each emotion within its Greco-Roman cultural context, along with highlighting its Scriptural resonances, the versatility of the apostle emerges, in that Paul could both draw on common cultural scripts while simultaneously changing them so as to morph them around the new and radical Christ paradigm. Ultimately, Blois stresses that Paul deftly weaves together a tapestry of emotions that unifies the Philippian believers around a shared way of feeling, enabling them to first experience Christ communally and then present him powerfully and winsomely to the pagan world around them.

Presenting diverse responses to important ethical questions, contestations and debates, this book offers a critical appraisal of Hindu ethics by engaging with classical and contemporary perspectives.

With the plurality of Hinduism in mind, this book focuses on the human, sociological and situational ethical framework underpinning Hindu ethics. Chapters go beyond the traditional classical sources-such as the Vedas, epics, mythological narratives and Dharmasastra texts-to include lesser known vernacular based moral texts, as well as contemporary sources from organizations, intellectuals and movements of religious, social and political nature.

Going beyond only theological and philosophical discussions, this handbook presents a truly multidisciplinary approach to Hindu ethics. This book will benefit not only scholars and students within religious studies and philosophy, but also those from sociology, history, theology, law, anthropology and literature.

This book investigates the policy choices and institutional frameworks that powered South Korea's remarkable transformation from postwar poverty to a global economic powerhouse, while confronting the mounting structural challenges that now threaten its sustainability. It identifies ten key factors behind Korea's rapid growth from the 1960s to the 1990s and examines pressing socioeconomic issues, including population aging, declining fertility, high suicide rates, political and economic polarization, early retirement, youth unemployment, and the expansion of private education. The book also analyzes deep inequalities within Korea's labor market, such as persistent gender wage gaps, disparities between large conglomerates and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the divide between regular and non-regular employment, and the heavy reliance on self-employment. Finally, it addresses critical economic policy challenges, including rising household debt, real estate bubbles, minimum wage debates, inflation, an underdeveloped service sector, an undervalued stock market, inefficiencies in public enterprises and mutual financial cooperatives, a lagging tourism industry, the search for new growth engines, carbon neutrality commitments, and an outdated tax system. Offering fresh insights and concrete policy recommendations, the book highlights both the achievements and the vulnerabilities of Korea's economic model.

Can the often-conflicted relationship between science and religion be seen in new light? In this volume, Ashley Lebner, Yunus Dogan Telliel, and their contributors show that engaging secularity and its constitutive relations can take science-religion debates onto new terrain.

Increasing antagonism towards science and scientists in the twenty-first century is often explained simplistically by pointing to the rise of religiously-underpinned right-wing movements - a narrative that reinforces the idea of an age-old and inevitable clash between science and religion. This book shows that engaging the concept of secularity, which has been understudied in scholarship on science and religion, helps take the scholarly debate into productive new directions.

Focusing on contemporary issues in the study of science and religion, including UFOs, cognitive science, decolonization, the Covid-19 pandemic, and religious nationalism, the contributions in this volume consider how people support, reject and grapple with common secularist ideas. They argue that the conditions of secularity both produce and are produced through relationships - those between humans as well as those that humans have with animals, matter and the divine. Moving beyond the individualism that is typically privileged in the West, this relational perspective assumes that the web of secularity, religion and science is open to constant negotiation and transformation: people and knowledge keep changing in relation to the world.

In foregrounding relationships and their capacity for change, this volume raises important questions about the political dimension of research on science, religion, and secularity. At a time of science denial and ecological crisis, it invites us to think about how humans can live with each other - and with non-humans - in better and less destructive ways.

Diverse labour markets, global mobility, growing internationalization, and acute skills shortages in many sectors and contexts, requires organizations to develop strategic approaches in the way they attract, engage and retain diverse talent and skills. Inclusive organisational cultures and climates that welcome, encourage and embrace a range of diverse voices are key to securing work engagement and retention of diverse talent. This edited book provides fresh insights to bridge the gap in our understanding surrounding the meaning and implementation of inclusive leadership and employee voice in contemporary organisations.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, this book highlights the critical role of inclusive leadership in fostering a culture of open communication, where employees feel valued, respected, and motivated to contribute. It underscores the importance of moving beyond tokenism to genuine inclusion, where every employee's voice is a catalyst for organisational growth and transformation. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of HRM, leadership and organisational behaviour. Additionally, it will serve as a valuable advanced resource for leaders, HR professionals, and scholars seeking to advance the dialogue on inclusive leadership and employee voice, and to implement strategies that drive meaningful and lasting change in their organisations.

This book argues for the positionality of the spirituality of queer Black women through the construction of an ecocosmological spiritual framework.

Conceptualizing the decolonial, Tomeka C. Jacobs travels through space, place, and time to rediscover the parts of queer Black women that have been quieted due to cisheteronormative, patriarchal, hegemonic, misogyny, and misogynoir systems of domination. She reflects on what it means to engage the decolonial through a theological and interdisciplinary lens, which includes epistemology, pedagogy, and ontology. Ecocosmological Spirituality of Southern Queer Black Women: (Re)Membering and Reconnecting Identity serves as a love letter to queer Black women who have often been overlooked in both academic and cultural milieus. Using queer autoethnography and decolonial methods, this book takes the reader on a journey of becoming. Jacobs presents themes of belonging, identity, healing, pain, joy, disconnection, reconnection, and the practice of (re)membering in the ecocosmological sphere. As an art form, she relies on scholars from disciplines beyond the scope of theology to address theological concerns and conscious positioning. This book is a call to unlearn, disconnect, deconstruct, and then (re)member, reconnect, and construct in life-giving, life-affirming, and life-altering ways.

Rooted in the innovative approach of La Trobe University's Centre for Dialogue, Volume 1 of The Art and Disposition of Dialogue offers a rigorous and accessible exploration of dialogue's theory, philosophy, history, and politics. Traversing cultural, social, psychological, and ideological divides, this volume lays a solid conceptual foundation, bridging the gap between reflective theory and practical engagement.

Rich in lessons, narratives, and insights, it equips scholars, practitioners, and curious minds alike with the tools to engage dialogue as an ethical, transformative, and intellectually grounded practice.

Strategic communication plays a vital role in shaping societies, businesses, and governance structures across Africa. With diverse cultural, linguistic, and political landscapes, strategic communication practices vary widely across regions. This book explores how communication professionals, organizations, and policymakers navigate these unique contexts to develop effective strategies. This edited volume aims to provide an in-depth analysis of strategic communication practices across Africa, with a particular focus on how cultural, economic, and political factors influence communication strategies in different regions. The book will serve as a resource for academics, practitioners, and students interested in understanding the complexities of strategic communication in Africa.

This book provides a concise and easily-digested overview of the field of research ethics, highlighting the key issues and everyday ethical dilemmas that researchers are likely to face in different contexts.

Covering a range of methods, the book provides clear guidance for researchers on how to identify an approach that fits with their moral and intellectual framework. It explores ethical issues relating to 'traditional' research methods as well as to new and emerging methods and approaches - particularly visual and online methods.

Chenhall builds on the success of the first edition by providing an international focus, including examples, resources and regulations from around the world and updating current and relevant regulations, guides and ethics statements from countries including Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US. In addition, the book includes updates to current issues in qualitative research ethics, covering key contemporary topics such as ethical issues raised by emerging approaches in qualitative research, qualitative research in online environments, Indigenous methodologies and data governance for Indigenous/First Nation populations, and institutional ethics requirements. The book also contains new sections on data sharing and big data, data sovereignty and artificial intelligence.

This book bridges cutting-edge AI research with actionable business recommendations, revealing how recommendation type, communication style, AI humanity, and even AI humor shape consumer engagement. Utilizing a mixed-method approach that combines experiments and surveys, the research offers a comprehensive framework to optimize AI interactions-whether through chatbots or social media. Key business insights include: (1) decoding the psychology behind AI-driven customer responses, (2) actionable insights for balancing efficiency and emotional resonance, and (3) fresh perspectives on AI's role in marketing. Written for practitioners and academics alike, it balances rigor with accessibility, making it indispensable for navigating the future of AI-powered engagement.

This is the story of clothes as pictures and of the importance and meanings of the way we picture clothes.

Focusing on the rapid changes of the interwar period, fashion is explored as a sensory interplay of images. From illustrations to editorial spreads, and amateur snapshots to Hollywood film, Documenting Fashion considers how American fashion was represented and created by visual culture. The chapters comprise thematic case studies of interconnected images that build to create a discussion of fashion as embodied experience, foregrounding the way that all viewers are also wearers, consuming magazines and other types of images, just as they purchase clothing and accessories.

Examining how mediums constructed and impacted the meaning of fashion during the 1920s and 1930s, the book tracks interconnections between technologies that developed in, for example, handheld cameras and Technicolor and Kodachrome color film. Aspects of photography itself are also considered such as hybrid and manipulated images, as well as light, shadow and colour's impact on depictions of fashion and the body. Newspapers, fashion and women's magazines such as Vogue and The Delineator are analysed alongside examples from the Black media, including Abbott's Monthly Magazine and The Afro-American.

Conceived as a revisionist history, diverse types of images of Black, white and Chinese Americans are analysed to argue for a more rounded examination of the ways dress, style and self-image were represented in still and moving images and how such imagery created a particularly American vision of vernacular modernity.

Examining changes in American football fan culture in the technological age uncovers similar patterns in American religion and politics.

The Current State of College Football explores changes in football fan culture over the past thirty to forty years, specifically regarding who is viewed as a worthy leader, whether a coach or player. With focus on the Deep South, these changes parallel the move from a religious, story-telling culture to a technological one. The latter provides immediate statistical updates and constant visual access from a phone, a reality that cuts off any slowly developing character arc within football fandom. As a result, the former ability to perceive presence in leaders by the average fan is no longer exercised. As stories give way to statistics, any potential "prophets" of the game are either ignored or lauded for things having nothing to do with presence, the perception of which was homed in a specific religious context and was once a common religious perception.

This cultural change is mirrored in the current political realm, the inability to recognize and choose leaders largely the result of losing this ability to enter the narrative arc and discern authentic characters. Those who we now view as unique are often the most predictable parts of the system itself while feigning to be above it. Because our muscles of perception now lie dormant, we more easily fall prey to them.

Turn raw data into real traction-and real revenue.

This practical hands-on guide is built for the realities of startup life-where time is short, resources are limited, and every decision counts. Whether you're just getting started or scaling fast, this book is your essential playbook for building a data-driven startup ready for growth and innovation-and for turning insight into impact and data into dollars.

Drawing from his hard-won lessons as the first data hire in both venture-backed successes and failures, author Piotr Sidoruk shares battle-tested strategies for building data systems that are both affordable and scalable, agile and reliable. You'll explore how to create a strong data foundation free from the rigidity of traditional corporate models, and how to use analytics and AI to inform product development, customer insights, and investor communication-ultimately turning data into measurable business outcomes and revenue growth.

What makes this book different? It unites data engineering, analytics, and machine learning into one actionable framework tailored for startups. With real-world examples from companies like Spotify, Airbnb, and Stripe, you'll see how data can become a strategic asset from day one. From your first data hire to your next funding round, this book is your roadmap to making data your competitive advantage.

What You Will Learn

• Develop a lean data-driven strategy to fuel startup growth

• Build a scalable data stack for AI and machine learning without overspending

• Discover user insights with analytics and qualitative research

• Turn data into financial value and build narratives that win investors

• Track key startup metrics including CAC, LTV, retention, and growth KPIs

• Build dashboards and reports that drive decisions and revenue

Who This Book Is For

Data engineers, analysts, and scientists who are the first data hires at startups-or preparing to work in fast-paced, high-growth startup environments. Ideal for professionals looking to build scalable data systems, drive product insights, and grow their careers in early-stage tech companies.

Safeguarding the minerals supply chains for advanced technologies in strategic industries is an economic and national security imperative. Yet significant vulnerabilities continue to exist in the supply chain, despite the ongoing efforts by government and businesses to address them. Policymakers now face the immense task of fortifying supplies of everything from lithium and graphite for advanced battery chemistries to tungsten and rare earth elements for the next generation of warfighting technologies. The United States will need to strengthen both its mission clarity and its execution with a comprehensive strategy focused on domestic resource development, advanced processing and recycling technologies, international partnerships, and sustainable practices.

This edited volume brings together the analysis and policy recommendations of 15 experts, led by editors Dr. Gracelin Baskaran and Dr. Duncan Wood, to bolster U.S. competitiveness and leadership in these areas. It is intended to be a resource for policymakers in the new U.S. administration and Congress. The volume shows that resilient mineral chains have never been more important for U.S. security than at this critical juncture.

The Sociology of the Stranger examines estrangement as a pervasive human experience, arguing that the figure of the stranger has been insufficiently theorized as a central social type.
By drawing on phenomenology, ethnomethodology, dramaturgical analysis, Kwang-ki Kim reinterprets the stranger as a key to understanding contemporary dynamics such as globalization, dislocation, and social adaptation. Rather than being marginal, the stranger is shown to be constitutive of both social life and sociological inquiry, offering a model for authenticity, reconciliation, and homecoming. Highlighting how sociologists themselves often occupy the stranger's position, this book is essential reading across the humanities and social sciences, revealing how the figure of the stranger illuminates dynamics of dislocation, adaptation, and the search for home in an age of transformation.

In recent years two major transformative forces have profoundly reshaped the logic of corporate competitiveness: artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability. These are not trends or passing phenomena, but structural and irreversible changes that will define how companies create value and maintain strategic relevance in the long term. This book explores the intersection of AI and sustainability and how their symbiosis represents one of the most promising frontiers of corporate transformation. AI can be a powerful enabler of sustainability, enhancing efficiency, transparency, and impact measurement, while sustainability provides the ethical and strategic framework needed for the responsible and inclusive development of AI systems.

Intended for scholars and students of sustainability and AI strategy, as well as practitioners, the book aims to bridge theory and practice by offering conceptual frameworks supported by case studies from national and international contexts.

This brief provides a unique overview that weaves a thread across the deep history of the management and symbolism of wild aurochs and domestic cattle in Sudan, where these practices are attested for over 15,000 to 20,000 years. It highlights the central preoccupation with these bovids by societies of the region, from the time of the earliest funerary rituals involving wild aurochs in the late Pleistocene, to the introduction of domestic cattle in the Neolithic, to pre-state societies through the historical period into the present day. It recounts the relationship between humans and the African aurochs, the processes of wild animal management, the prey pathway that provides a possible model for domestication, the introduction of Bos taurus to the African continent, and then the establishment of widespread herding practices, including the introgression of the African aurochs into domesticated cattle populations. Finally, it emphasises the economic and symbolic value of cattle seen through social cults and even a human 'infatuation' with cattle by observing the roles and representations of these animals from different disciplinary perspectives. Its geographic scope covers modern Sudan's territory, extending from Nubia, in the Middle Nile Valley, to the wider Nile Basin, as well as to eastern and western Sudan.

The herding of domestic animals came to shape the societies of North-Eastern Africa during a period of over 10,000 years, up to the present. With focus on cattle, this volume examines the deep history of the origins of pastoralism in Africa and the economic, political, and religious role they came to play over time. Animal herding is the subsistence economy that is best adapted to arid and semi-arid environments, such as those in North-Eastern Africa, with cattle herding playing a prominent role in providing economic needs by serving as a 'walking larder' and 'storage on the hoof' and in ritual through its symbolic role, including the practice of sacrifice. From an economic point of view, cattle can provide meat, milk, blood, skin, sinew, manure, fuel, and labor, and can serve as a currency of exchange and a store of value. From a symbolic point of view, their physical presence in tombs and in movable (figurines) and immovable art (rock engravings and paintings) represents a material demonstration of ostentatious wealth and/or social status that can be converted into political support by building a clientele by means of exchange and redistribution, as well as a manifestation of divinity. Finally, from a ritual point of view, ceremonies related to a cattle cult fix and consolidate social bonds between members of a community.

This work traces the contours, shape, and development of Webster's Trinitarian theology and subsequently enliven debates in contemporary systematic theology. Rempel deftly takes us from Webster's engagement with Eberhard Juengel and Karl Barth to his later concerns with Trinity, economy and Christian Distinction.

This journey allows Rempel to identify Webster's contributions to contemporary systematic theology with a retrieval of divine perfection as well as a reframing of the doctrines of revelation and election. This work also highlights how Webster's work interacts with and diverges from other major theologians, such as Thomas Aquinas and Robert Jenson. This, ultimately, leaves a work that brings Webster's theology to bear on several debated issues in contemporary systematic theology.

This edited work presents cases that address ethical issues in the field of human resource development (HRD). It helps readers navigate the complex ethical dilemmas they may face in various contexts, such as the workplace, research, publishing, teaching, and more. Each case includes a vignette that sets the scene, thought-provoking discussion questions, and recommendations for further reading related to the topic, providing students with a holistic understanding of how to tackle ethical challenges in HRD. With supplementary resources for instructors on how to use the cases in the classroom, this book will answer the need for practical, real-world cases to equip students and practitioners with the tools needed to resolve ethical issues confidently and competently.

This book uncovers the untold story behind one of the most significant episodes in the history of German-Israeli relations, revealing how Chancellor Helmut Kohl orchestrated Germany's approval and financing of the first Dolphin-class submarines for Israel. A process driven by security interests, alliance politics and Germany's lasting responsibility following the Shoah. Drawing on newly examined archival material, the book illustrates how the Gulf War, US pressure and Germany's own identity converged to produce a precedent-setting decision that reshaped bilateral ties for decades.