The political turbulence caused by Donald Trump's second term has most of the world on edge. Trump 2.0 promises to treat social science as something that must be attacked, demonized, and discredited, while fear, complacency and accommodation have meant sociologists have a poor track record of holding powers accountable. This book offers an elixir.

Condemn and Resist brings together a series of essays from leading sociologists in response to the first year of Trump 2.0 at a time when expert voices are essential for effective critical analysis of political and social climates. With chapters on inequality and public health, immigration, women's health and abortion rights, climate change, education, LGBTQ+ rights, labor and organizing, and government and democracy, the contributors offer effective, efficient and accessible analyses with suggestions and strategies for action.

Rigorous, readable, and urgent, Condemn and Resist is essential for understanding the long-lasting impacts of Trump 2.0. Looking beyond a single moment, this book points toward the future of democracy, the necessity of rigorous scholarship, and the transformative power of social movements.

This book offers a systematic guide to the history of Bulgarian economic thought within the broader evolution of the nation's economy-from the final decades of the Ottoman Empire to the socialist period. It explores the interplay between economic culture, policy, institutions, and theory, revealing how Bulgarian economists interpreted and responded to the structural challenges of a developing and dependent economy.

Special attention is given to the exchanges of ideas between Bulgaria and Europe, highlighting both external intellectual influences and original national contributions. This book is an essential resource for students and scholars interested in the history of economic thought, economic culture, economic history, and the distinctive paths of European economic traditions.

"This Palgrave Handbook makes an important contribution to debates on the future of liberal democracy. Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives and rich empirical analyses, it shows how liberal principles and practices are contested, reworked, and sometimes undermined across institutions, policies, and borders."

--Tanja Boerzel, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany

"This Palgrave Handbook provides invaluable insights into the most significant challenge to liberal democracy today, the dissensus from outside as well as from within Europe that has led to the disruption, destabilization, and in certain instances even destruction of democratic institutions and politics along with liberal norms and values."

--Vivien A. Schmidt, Boston University, USA, and the European University Institute, Italy

"The publication of this excellent book could not be more timely, at a moment when the contestation of liberal democracy in the European Union, both from within and from outside has reached its peak."

--Gabor Halmai, Eoetvoes Lorand University (ELTE), Hungary, and European University Institute (EUI), Italy

This open access handbook offers a comprehensive analysis of dissensus over liberal democracy in Europe. Moving beyond accounts that focus solely on democratic backsliding, it conceptualises dissensus as a structural conflict over the ideal, meaning and practice of liberal democracy, unfolding across EU institutions, member states, and key policy domains. It examines:

? What forms does dissensus over liberal democracy take within the European Union?

? How have EU institutions responded over recent decades to increasing challenges to its core values?

? How does dissensus reshape the EU's internal policies?

? What are the implications for the EU's capacity to act beyond its borders?

? And how do external state and non-state actors influence dissensus within the EU and its neighbourhood?

This is an Open Access book which explores the physical and societal consequences of climate events such as heatwaves, drought, heavy rainfall and rising sea levels, and how they can lead to social disruption. The impact of climate events extends beyond damage and casualties. Climate disruption may result in people losing trust in the government and each other, in communities falling apart, as well as in increasing poverty. Conversely, the social context partly determines how well people are able to cope with climate events. Those with a strong network or sufficient resources are generally less likely to encounter severe problems and more likely to recover from such disruptions. The book argues that Dutch climate adaptation policy currently pays too little attention to these social factors. The focus of Dutch policies and practices is on physical protection measures. Although these are essential, they are not sufficient. The authors argue that climate resilience in the Netherlands could improve if the government also invests in the country's social infrastructure, which enables people to look out for each other, increases mutual trust, and offers perspectives for action.

This open access book offers a detailed analysis of how legal perceptions and regulations surrounding marriage changed in Ethiopia from the earliest times of statehood until the fall of the Ethiopian Empire in 1974. Drawing on a wide range of historical and legal sources, the research examines the complex development of Ethiopian family law, with particular emphasis on marriage. The central questions explore the complex relationship between customary law, religious norms, and formal state law in shaping the institution of marriage in Ethiopia. The study assesses the extent to which these various legal traditions complement or contradict one another in the marriage context. It discusses the significance of Ethiopian laws and the 1960 Civil Code, analyzing how they align with or differ from traditional marriage customs. These issues prove particularly significant given Ethiopia's distinctive historical trajectory. Unlike many other African countries, Ethiopia mostly avoided direct colonial rule, except for a short Italian occupation from 1936 to 1941. Its history has led to notable legal advancement, particularly in law codification, which differs markedly from other post-colonial African countries. Furthermore, the country's diverse, multicultural, and multi-ethnic composition, with many languages, traditions, and customs, enhances both the complexity and richness of its legal system.

The book highlights marriage as a fundamental social institution that evolves gradually, serving as a useful perspective to examine broader societal and political shifts. The Amhara, as the dominant ethnic group, have significantly influenced marriage customs and Ethiopian laws, with their customary laws gaining considerable importance.

This open access book employs a rigorous legal analysis that combines national perspectives with a broader examination of EU-level regulation. Online disinformation is one of the most pressing issues in terms of understanding the kind of society in which we live and aspire to live. It threatens democratic systems by influencing voters' electoral choices. At the same time, it poses significant challenges to the foundational principles of the rule of law, since it is widely considered to require remedies that depart substantially from traditional legal frameworks.
In the current geopolitical context, the European Union and its member states are at the forefront of addressing these issues and testing solutions. This book offers readers an extensive overview of European achievements and shortcomings to date. Contributions from eminent European scholars specialized in disinformation and digital constitutionalism cover the regulatory frameworks of eighteen legal systems throughout the EU.
The authors employ a rigorous legal analysis that combines national perspectives with a broader examination of EU-level regulation. Particular attention is paid to the tension between freedom of expression - a cornerstone of democratic regimes - and the rapid technological transformations that are reshaping contemporary society. Issues such as the limits of regulatory intervention, the role of digital platforms, and the evolution of constitutional principles are discussed throughout these chapters. In addition to mapping existing frameworks, the authors explore anticipated challenges and prospective solutions for the near future.
Conceived as a contribution to the body of scholarship on digital constitutionalism and media law, this book will appeal to researchers and scholars of European law, democratic theory, and information governance.

This open access book is a comprehensive examination of how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the field of social work across practice, education, and research. This topic is particularly important to the field at this time due to the rapid integration of AI technologies into societal structures and the increasing demand for social services that are efficient, effective, and ethically sound. The book provides timely insights into how AI can be harnessed to address complex social issues while maintaining the core values of social work. It emphasizes the critical need for professionals to understand and navigate the ethical implications of AI, ensuring that technological advancements serve to enhance, rather than compromise, human well-being.

Organized into five parts, the book begins with a foundational overview in Part I, introducing the role of AI in transforming social work. Part II explores AI applications responding to social needs, covering critical areas such as poverty, child welfare, health care, mental health, substance abuse, support for older adults, communities at risk, criminal justice, and human trafficking prevention. Part III delves into AI's impact on social justice in changing contexts, including advocacy, environmental challenges, the evolving workplace, and international issues. Part IV focuses on AI in social work education and research, highlighting how AI tools enhance learning and scholarly inquiry. Part V addresses ethical considerations and future directions, discussing challenges, governance, and strategies for building AI literacy, culminating in a conclusion that outlines opportunities for AI in social work.

Artificial Intelligence in Social Work: Bridging Technology and Humanity equips social work practitioners, educators, researchers, and students with a deep understanding of AI's capabilities and implications within various social work domains. The book offers practical guidance on integrating AI into various aspects of social work practice, enhancing service delivery, and improving client outcomes. For educators and students, it provides a framework for incorporating AI literacy into social work curricula, preparing the next generation of professionals for a technologically advanced landscape. Researchers benefit from insights into innovative methodologies that leverage AI for more robust and impactful studies. By intertwining technological advancements with the human-centric values of social work, the book underscores the necessity of balancing innovation with compassion and ethical responsibility.

An incisive analysis of how congressional communication with constituents has changed and what this means for representation and polarization.

Members of Congress have a duty to talk to their constituents back home about what's going on in Washington. But today, the average politician lacks the time, resources, and knowledge necessary to coherently explain the bills and legislative actions up for debate. Therefore, they turn to those who hold the keys to the chamber: party leaders.

Consequently, Congress is now more reliant than ever on its leaders' partisan talking points, and constituents hear more about nationalized political battles rather than the local issues affecting their districts. Drawing on large-scale text analysis, campaign expenditures, and congressional district data, as well as in-depth interviews, Echo Chambers examines how partisan communication took over Congress, the key differences in that messaging across parties and chambers, and what these combined forces mean for US citizens today.

A sweeping account of China's global strategy from Mao to Xi, revealing its effort to court strategic partners, outmaneuver rivals, and reshape the global order on its own terms

Beijing wants global influence without global entanglements. That ambition is not new-it has been decades in the making. Rather than building rigid alliances, China has cultivated a vast and flexible web of partnerships spanning ideological divides. These ties-with Russia, North Korea, Global South states, and key US-aligned powers-are designed to avoid binding commitments, counter perceived containment, and expand Beijing's room for maneuver amid intensifying great power competition. No Constraints offers an unprecedented look at this approach, showing how China's global strategy is driven by a persistent fear of strategic encirclement and a relentless drive to break free of it.

In a study spanning China's Cold War alliances to its search for partners today, Patricia Kim reveals how Beijing has managed and mismanaged its most consequential relationships. She demonstrates how China's preference for autonomy, embrace of authoritarian regimes, and reliance on coercive tactics have often reinforced the very threats it seeks to diffuse. Its rejection of formal alliances raises hard questions about whether its partners would provide real support in a crisis. At the center of this story stands China's enduring struggle with the United States. Kim traces a recurring cycle of attempted grand bargains, coercive pressure, and recalibration as Beijing seeks to resolve strategic encirclement at its source.

Written by an internationally recognized expert on Chinese foreign policy, No Constraints offers a clear-eyed assessment of what China's global strategy means for a world in which alignments are fluid, order is contested, and global leadership is increasingly up for grabs. The book concludes with a warning that the greater danger lies less in a China bent on outright global domination, but one that destabilizes the existing order behind a veneer of global leadership.

This book is a go-to source for educators, including those in late-primary education, secondary education, and undergraduate higher education, interested in teaching genocide studies. The author makes the subject more accessible for students, as well as for educators who do not have a background in this subarea. Each chapter includes discussion questions, research prompts, and suggestions for further reading. The book will also appeal to fans of the Harry Potter series.

Departing from the complex reality of cities and intending to address existing vulnerabilities from a legal perspective, this book aims to suggest the implementation of new legal frameworks which, through more adaptive mechanisms of law, can allow the realization of justice for socio-ecological resilience. Climate change is one of the biggest challenges for today's Environmental Law. Within this reality, the rapid growth of urban spaces, where most of the world's population lives, has resulted in the creation of more inequalities among social communities. The complexity of different social and ecological systems, growing environmental instability, and climate uncertainty urge for a need to find solutions to a more resilient future. In order to face this background, Public Law has now the opportunity to play a catalyst role in improving the environmental quality and life of urban communities. Nevertheless, environmental rights enshrined in most constitutions do not demonstrate to be sufficient for an effective protection of social-ecological systems and thus for the enhancement of their resilience.

The Last Purge explores the political ramifications of what is now known as the Cotton Affair, the largest and final purge in the post-Stalin Soviet Union. A significant yet underexamined episode of Uzbekistan's contemporary history, the Cotton Affair was a drawn-out judicial and political imbroglio that grew out of falsified cotton production data and corruption. Under cotton king Sharaf Rashidov, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, the country more than doubled its production of cotton, the nation's principal cash crop. When the USSR's tenth five-year plan demanded an annual production of six million tons of raw cotton, however, production became a matter of political survival for the Uzbek ruling elite. To cope, they began hiding inefficiencies through bribes and falsifying cotton production data. Moscow's eventual crackdown in the 1980s implicated 58,000 officials - 20,000 of whom faced criminal prosecution - and overwhelmed Uzbekistan's institutions.

Cucciolla sets the Cotton Affair at the center of Uzbekistan's transition from Soviet republic to independent state. Through the use of untapped Russian and Uzbek sources, he traces how the Cotton Affair became a sensitive identity issue of revenge and resistance against former rulers that served to legitimize the new Uzbek president's regime and define his relations with local power networks. In recovering the often sordid details of this critical event in the USSR's political history, Cucciolla offers fresh insights into the contradictions as well as consequences of perestroika and the disintegration of the Soviet Union from the perspective of its periphery.

How the geopolitical behavior of states is closely related to the nature of their political systems

Today's world is characterized by an unstable coexistence of empires, nation-states, and democracies. In this book, Gerard Roland examines these three fundamentally different institutional systems and considers whether the international behavior of nations is influenced by the nature of their political regimes. He explains that until the nineteenth century, international relations were driven by rivalries among competing empires; as empires started to disintegrate, they were replaced by nation-states, some of which became democracies. The nation-state project supported by today's extreme right promotes ethnic homogeneity within a country's borders, while democracies are based on universal values of citizenship. Interactions between countries with such essentially different political systems, Roland shows, are seldom harmonious and likely to evolve into cultural clashes and military conflict.

Drawing on his expertise in political and comparative economics, Roland analyzes why and how countries' geopolitical behavior-their actions and attitudes regarding war, peace, expansionism, and trade-is closely linked to their political systems. In the long run, he argues, the ethnically homogenous nation-state is doomed because of the strong economic inefficiencies entailed by economic nationalism and the lack of openness to immigration, trade, and foreign direct investment. A better path for the future of the international order, Roland suggests, would be a world of small democracies building supranational institutions on the basis of commonly accepted rules.

This book tackles a critical question. Why has the world struggled so much to coordinate policy to address climate change, despite political and scientific consensus? Despite landmark agreements and expanding knowledge, emissions have fallen unevenly and progress has repeatedly stalled or reversed.

Democracy or Carbon Oligarchy? explains that failure by focusing on domestic politics: how institutions distribute power, how interest groups exploit "access points," and why countries with similar wealth and technology diverge. Moving beyond arguments about mere political will, it situates energy and climate outcomes within the institutional architectures of industrialized oil super-producers: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Norway. Shum advances a neopluralist theory of climate politics, arguing that policy is shaped by the strategic capture of institutional venues by carbon-intensive interests. He shows how separation of powers, federalism, party systems, and electoral rules configure opportunities for a de facto carbon oligarchy. By mapping where binding decisions are made and who can reach them, the book offers a generalizable framework for diagnosing blockages, explaining cross-national variation, and identifying leverage points for sustaining ambitious climate policy over time.

An eye-opening story of the people who make the census, the United States' largest and most consequential dataset, and the growing threats to their crucial work.

By many measures, the US census is the government's largest non-wartime operation, and one of the world's oldest and biggest data-making endeavors. The 2020 census required more than a decade of planning and technical work-not to mention managing nearly a quarter of a million temporary workers simultaneously-to collect data about the American public. That data was then processed to count each of 331,449,281 residents once-and only once-and in the right place. The operation is also one of the country's most consequential. Census data determine how political power and federal funding are allocated. Census data make politics, and consequently, politics make census data. In this urgent book, danah boyd explores what it took for the Census Bureau to make the 2020 census, amidst a global pandemic and natural disasters, and while navigating political forces that constrained the budget, micro-managed the schedule, and attacked statisticians' methods.

With rare insider access to the Census Bureau, boyd observed and interviewed hundreds of government civil servants who made the 2020 census. By documenting the perspectives of government workers, Data Are Made, Not Found provides a rare glimpse into what it takes to make democracy's data. Each chapter reveals a different challenge-ranging from the last-minute fights about a citizenship question to the not-so-helpful help of well-intended stakeholders to avoid undercounts-and shows how civil servants responded to each problem, controversy, and hurdle. Boyd shows how many of the challenges that the Census Bureau faced in 2020 resulted from decades of political operatives, data users, and various stakeholders playing what boyd calls "Jenga politics," weakening the administrative state for short-term political gains by removing support and adding more requirements.

Civil servants saved the 2020 census, but future censuses-and other data-making efforts related to elections, health, and the economy-are precarious. Boyd's message is clear and compelling: protecting democracy means protecting the people and institutions that produce this data.

Industry 4.0 technologies help in reducing the set -up time and cost, lead times, labor and material cost and enhance productivity, flexibility, customization and value addition. Additionally, industry 4.0 helps in decreasing the energy and resources consumption that leads to decreased waste creation and carbon emission in the assembly, production and supply chain operations.

The research curated here examines the critical link between Industry 4.0 technologies and green supply chain management (GSCM) implementation to achieve supply chain sustainability. The chapters emphasize the necessity of digital transformation in firms in order to achieve sustainable performance, as well as the rising importance of sustainability in organizational strategy, product innovation, and process re-engineering. Furthermore, it investigates the inclusion of Industry 4.0 technologies to enhance sustainability in SCM operations, with a special emphasis on the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) 2030 and the post-COVID-19 scenario.

A necessary exploration into the mechanics of data privacy protections within empirical social science research.

The explosion of computational power and data availability has revolutionized empirical social science research, but it has also created unprecedented challenges for protecting the privacy of individuals and businesses. As computational tools make it increasingly possible to breach data anonymity in government surveys by combining the survey data with additional information from external sources, statistical agencies face mounting pressure to develop new privacy protection methods while maintaining data quality essential for research and policymaking. This volume explores how innovations in data privacy protection, including differential privacy and synthetic data methods, affect the conduct of empirical analysis in economics, computer science, and statistics. Contributors explore critical questions about the trade-offs between privacy and data usability: How do new protection methods impact statistical inference and parameter estimation? What standards should data providers adopt? The chapters examine frameworks for characterizing privacy protection, disclosure limitation challenges for survey data, methodological innovations for privacy-preserving statistical analysis, regulatory considerations in modern data governance, and strategies for balancing confidentiality with research access.

This volume provides researchers, statistical agencies, and policymakers with essential guidance for navigating the complex landscape where data protection meets scientific inquiry.

The economy remains a rationalising tool for explaining the condition of the artist, both for professional and for experts, even when this implies a form of dissociation between the artist and the economist. Focusing on the relationship between art and the market removes entire sections of the social imagination and aesthetic sides linked to art. This two-volume ethnographic work provides answers to what appears to be a mysterious phenomenon, young people's vocation for art, by focusing on real-life situations and testimonials in a critical perspective.

This first volume explores young artists' lives and young people's artistic aspirations through their own eyes, exploring the education and career trajectories of artists in a variety of creative fields. The influence of entrepreneurship and the types of 'entrepreneurial life' that are now expected of artistic careers are described and interpreted. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of the arts economy, work and employment and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

The book presents different perspectives and methodological approaches related to the development of gender equality plans and gender budgeting ranging from empirical legal studies to doctrinal contributions, national or field specific case studies to historical and comparative assessments, domestic as well as international perspectives, conceptual as well as practical considerations.

The Authenticity Formula draws on insights from over 60 interviews with experienced practitioners and leaders working across branding, licensing, design, entrepreneurship, and cultural leadership. The book examines how authenticity is built, tested, and often contested across markets. Rather than treating authenticity as a short-term business attribute or a transactional claim, it is approached as a longer-term organizational condition shaped by values, decisions, and cultural context.

Each chapter explores a distinct combination of authenticity dimensions, combining first-hand accounts, international case studies, and critical reflection to show how organizations navigate growth and change while maintaining credibility. The authors examine both successes and failures, illustrating how cultural understanding, co-creation, and consistency between intent and action influence trust across different settings.

Written in a clear and accessible style, the book offers readers practical frameworks and analytical tools, such as the A.U.T.H.E.N.T.I.C. Framework, to assess cultural alignment, avoid superficial localization, and better understand the implications of authenticity in global brand practice. The underlying ambition is to contribute to broader social impact by clarifying how authentic attributes influence organizational change over time.

This book is intended for brand leaders, designers, and strategists seeking culturally grounded and credible approaches to brand development across markets.

This volume is an interdisciplinary exploration of philosophical psychology utilising insights from the study of literature.

It traverses disciplinary boundaries in two directions: some chapters proceed from the theoretical foundations of philosophical psychology and then reach into literary works, whilst others start from literary works, then reach into philosophy. Every chapter asks what literature can deliver to philosophy just as much as the reverse direction.

This volume aims to enrich and further elucidate many of the concepts central to philosophical psychology and is essential reading for all scholars, researchers and advanced students in the philosophy of mind and in the philosophy of literature.

This Open Access book starts with a thought-provoking question: are citizens in modern democracies becoming more like fans? With the growing fluidity of political identities and the rise of non-ideological political leaders presented as celebrities, it is worth exploring whether political allegiance and participation are increasingly shaped by forms of fandom-and what this shift means for contemporary democracies. Ultimately, the book provides an innovative perspective that deepens our understanding of the intersection between political communication and entertainment. While the phenomenon of celebrity politics has been widely examined, the perspective of followers and fans remains less thoroughly explored. In the digital media era, there is still much to uncover about how citizens engage with leaders' celebrity strategies by adopting the role of fans. Moreover, toxic practices and forms of anti-fandom also shape the intersection of fan culture and politics. The research featured in this book adopts a mixed-methods approach, comprising a survey conducted across seven European countries (Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the UK) and the analysis of social media content from three countries (France, Italy, and Spain) to explore the nature of fan-like practices surrounding political leaders in online spaces. The book aims to consider whether citizens primarily function as an audience, observing political leaders' performances and consuming information about their public and private lives, or whether they also actively contribute as content creators, particularly on social media. By analysing the activities and practices of political celebrities' followers, as well as the emotional connections they form with their political idols, the book examines whether citizens can be regarded as genuine fans, for whom the experience of fandom influences the shaping of their political identities.