This edited volume explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming science education across multiple dimensions-including theoretical, pedagogical, ethical, and practical aspects. Aimed at science educators, curriculum developers, researchers, and policymakers, the book brings together 19 chapters authored by experts in science education, educational technology, and artificial intelligence. The book addresses a growing need for educational innovation in the age of AI, offering both conceptual insights and hands-on strategies to integrate AI tools into science teaching, learning, assessment, and teacher education. It introduces foundational AI concepts relevant to educational contexts, highlights prompt writing and engineering as emerging pedagogical skills, and discusses the ethical implications of AI use in classrooms. Key topics include the development of adaptive and data-driven learning environments, the role of AI in teaching the Nature of Science, and the integration of AI-supported tools to foster 21st-century competencies such as creativity, argumentation, data literacy, and scientific process skills. The book also presents AI-enhanced instructional strategies-ranging from flipped learning to drama-based science teaching-and showcases sample lesson plans suitable for K-12 and higher education contexts. By combining evidence-based research with application-focused examples, this book aims to support educators and decision-makers in navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in education. It offers actionable insights to help stakeholders make informed decisions and design future-ready science education experiences. This volume is particularly relevant as science educators and systems worldwide grapple with how best to prepare students for an AI-augmented future. It provides a structured, interdisciplinary framework to harness AI's potential while addressing associated pedagogical and ethical challenges.

The Empirical Middle Ages explores the characteristics of people's attention to everyday objects and areas: wooden carvings, towns, coastal regions, and other built and natural phenomena. What draws people toward their items? What methods do they use in gathering information about them? How do they present their findings?

To answer these questions, Matthew Boyd Goldie explores how people in the Middle Ages attended to familiar phenomena with great precision, correlating and measuring to such an exhaustive degree that the recording took over as their predominant activity. Focusing on the history of empiricism in particular, Goldie reveals that the Middle Ages were not empirical in the sense of academic experimentation or scientific observation. Rather, the cases described in The Empirical Middle Ages enable readers to look outside scholastic discussions about factuality and toward administrative, practical, and legal contexts. The results comprise a historically shaped phenomenology usually denied to the medieval: objectivity, forensics, realism, empiricism.

Ceausescu's Children examines the remembered experiences, institutional structures, and ambivalent ideologies of childhood under Nicolae Ceauescu (1965-1989), reconsidering dominant narratives of state socialism in Eastern Europe and histories of childhood in contemporary Europe through the lens of Romania's last socialist generation. Juxtaposing previously unexplored archives against personal recollections, Diana Georgescu argues that children and teens led normal lives in extraordinary times. They attended schools and afterschool clubs, cultivating ideological skills alongside cultured behaviors, playing expert roles of historians and ethnographers of their motherland on scientific expeditions, or serving as cultural ambassadors in international camps in the Soviet bloc and Western Europe.

Georgescu investigates how children performed daily practices of socialist patriotism and internationalism under the guidance of teachers, youth activists, and parents, emerging as socialist-cum-national subjects. Ceauescu's Children challenges the notion that late socialist education and state children's organizations were exclusively collectivist and homogenizing. Moving beyond binary representations of complicity or resistance, Georgescu argues that children, parents, and educators often met the socialist regime halfway, adapting its policies and ideologies to their interests, needs, and aspirations.

The use of online matchmaking has increased dramatically over recent years and has become a popular means for individuals to find an intimate partner. While such online services have increased, the inherent variations across the different types of consumers and service providers have outpaced researchers' understanding of them. Further, the consequences of such services, for both individuals and the larger society, remain largely unknown. This edited volume features scholars around the globe to address the nature and complexities of online matchmaking.

Looking specifically at online dating and its intersections with family life, topics covered in the chapters include those such as online dating and social skills, the consequences of mismatches in online matchmaking, the demography of online matchmaking, relationship development in the online realm, the impact of online matchmaking on marital quality and marital duration, sexual orientation and online matchmaking, and other related issues.

Providing an international view, An Examination of Mate Selection in the Online Realm is appealing reading for scholars of family sociology, media sociology and youth studies.

This open access book takes readers inside the minds and hearts of twenty urban visionaries transforming urban and rural environments across six continents. Rather than focusing on technical solutions or policy frameworks, Cathy Oke and Jorn Verbeeck reveal the deeply personal journeys of former mayors, Indigenous leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, activists and academics who have used cities and towns as living laboratories for humanity's future. From Durban to Paris, Melbourne to Bangalore, these boundary spanners share intimate stories of what drives their work: childhood memories of fishing with grandparents, moments of recognition on Arctic mountains, encounters with traditional knowledge systems that challenge Western assumptions about development. Rather than celebrating lone heroes, the book reveals cities and their communities as "kaleidoscopes of possibility" requiring ensemble casts who translate between disciplines, sectors, and communities.

Each story weaves personal odyssey with professional transformation, capturing how individual experiences of displacement, discovery, and belonging shape approaches to collective challenges like climate change, inequality, and urban resilience. This is a syllabus for sustainable city leadership: accumulated wisdom that integrates multiple knowledge systems, honours ancient wisdom alongside contemporary innovation, and fosters collaborative intelligence through the stories we share. Essential reading for anyone navigating the messy, vital work of making cities thrive.

Illustrations by Chris Cane.

Online abuse in sport has become a pervasive global challenge, affecting athletes, teams, officials, and sporting communities across all levels of competition. Despite growing awareness, scholarly attention has largely concentrated on hate speech, leaving other critical forms of abuse underexplored. This open access edited collection addresses this gap by offering a comprehensive examination of the multifaceted nature of online abuse in sport, structured around seven categories identified by Kurt Thomas: toxic content, content leakage, overloading, false reporting, impersonation, surveillance, and lockout and control. The volume comprises eight chapters, beginning with an introductory overview of online abuse in sport, followed by chapters that explore each category in depth. Each chapter defines the forms of abuse within its scope and discusses the key themes, impact, and potential solutions. By expanding the focus beyond traditional notions of online hate, this book provides an integrated and critical assessment of the diverse manifestations of online abuse in sport. It serves as an essential reference for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to understand, prevent, and respond to online harms in sporting contexts.

This open access volume aims to support teachers with tools and examples of practices to facilitate democratic learning environments, strengthen civic learning, and foster students' attitudes and engagement in the classroom. Schools are among the most relevant contexts for students to practice citizenship firsthand. By building democratic learning environments, schools provide meaningful opportunities for students to develop civic knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors and, ultimately, to experience democracy.

The first part of the book connects civic and citizenship education theory with classroom practice, explores how schools and communities can nurture citizenship education, and discusses insights from ICCS findings. The second part offers practical teaching strategies and examples from schools in Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Slovenia, with the aim of inspiring the development of democratic learning environments and promoting meaningful civic participation.

This open access edited volume brings together original perspectives on the important topic of educational integration of refugees and newly arrived immigrants and discusses implications for policymakers and practitioners. It highlights that, despite significant migration movements in recent years, the body of research addressing school integration processes and the role of regulations and laws remains limited. These factors are considered important for early adaptation, long-term acculturation, and the overall integration of newly arrived immigrants.

The volume brings together qualitative and quantitative studies on educational participation in primary and secondary education as well as in vocational education and training. It also examines the challenges involved in acquiring second-language proficiency and achieving success across a range of school subjects. It explores the institutional conditions for the educational integration of refugees and newly arrived immigrants (particularly access to education, academic achievement, and attainment) across different host countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Sweden. It offers valuable insights and discusses potential implications for researchers studying educational opportunities of immigrant youth, as well as for policymakers and policy advisors.

In Seneca Village, Alexander Manevitz showcases the ideas of freedom that underpinned this remarkable community, built in upper Manhattan with the intent to foster Black social, economic, and political self-determination. Between 1825 and 1853, free African Americans bought land and built an innovative settlement. Then, through the 1850s, New York City forcibly evicted the residents, seized the land, and destroyed the buildings, burying this thriving neighborhood under the landscape of the new Central Park.

In this most in-depth investigation to date of Seneca Village, Manevitz reconstructs the essential history of the community from the overlooked traces they left behind, focusing on the interconnected lives of Seneca Villagers and the daily work of liberation. Decades before the Civil War and Reconstruction, they honed a vision of Black freedom on their own terms, fighting to create space for themselves in a country that promised liberty for all but denied it to many.

This book explores the profound connections between Nam June Paik's artistic vision and Korean shamanism, a theme that has been largely overlooked in English-language scholarship. Drawing from key historical performances and theoretical insights, this volume examines Paik's role as a shamanic figure who mediated between past and future, technology and tradition, and material and spiritual realms. The book situates Paik's work within broader discourses on emerging media, emphasizing how his engagement with shamanism extends beyond ritual performance to a conceptual framework of communication, transformation, and spiritual resonance. It also investigates Paik's legacy in relation to dark shamanism and neoliberalism, offering new perspectives on the cultural and political dimensions of his art. By bringing together critical essays from leading scholars, Electronic Shaman provides an essential resource for those interested in media art, shamanism, and the intersections of technology and spirituality in contemporary culture.

Delve into Rome's lost history through the stories of a single city block.

Cutting through the heart of Rome is Via delle Botteghe Oscure, a time-worn street named for the mysterious "shops" said to run beneath it. History lies thick here, a museum atop a convent atop ancient ruins; layered in are traces of artisans and poets, pilgrims and saints, a Fascist deportation, a communist coffee bar, a political assassination, and shopkeepers, too. These stories all rest upon a single city block, the same place where, in 13 BCE, the triumphal Roman general Lucius Cornelius Balbus built a monumental theater complex in his own honor.

Elizabeth Rodini's On the Street of the Hidden Shops digs deep into this corner of the city, uncovering a set of surprising, often poignant narratives that range across two thousand years. For as the walls of Balbus's compound decayed and the neighborhood was rebuilt, this block would come to shelter Romans from all walks of life: the daughters of local prostitutes, an earnest young man in search of a bride, an entrepreneur determined to preserve the city's colorful dialect, a Jewish family recently liberated from the nearby Ghetto, and a band of idealistic archaeologists unearthing a long-forgotten past, as well as a gifted baker, a medieval donkey, and a Renaissance ghost. Their stories survive in archives and artifacts but also in the enduring power of rumor and legend.

On the Street of the Hidden Shops invites us on a captivating journey to one place across many centuries. Its tight urban focus reveals a Rome most visitors miss, while uncovering some of the many Romes that have been largely lost to history.

A provocative account of how empire and absolutism institutionalized slavery in America

The original draft of the Declaration of Independence condemned British kings for supporting slavery in their empire. England's two seventeenth-century revolutions were in part a reaction to the crown's proslavery policies, with politicians such as John Locke arguing that all people were born equal and that government should be based on consent. But while these principles would underpin the American Revolution, the treaty that ended that war protected the legal foundations of the plantation system in the new republic. The King's Slaves untangles this thorny history, arguing that American slavery was borne from authoritarian rule.

In this incisive and thought-provoking book, Holly Brewer challenges the notion that slavery arose naturally in the colonies through the interests of merchants and planters, showing how behind them lay a British crown that believed in absolute power over subjects and granted similar powers to proprietors and masters. British kings used their authority over navies and armies, judges and royal governors to create an elaborate plantation system that produced more crops for export and greater wealth from tariffs. Royal propaganda supported claims that some peoples had no rights while edicts and proclamations circumvented the legislative process. Brewer describes how African and Indigenous peoples resisted the king's slavery, as did some colonists, English politicians, and reformers. Yet slavery persisted, becoming enshrined after independence as a dehumanizing legal foundation of American capitalism.

A bold work of scholarship by a historian at the height of her powers, The King's Slaves shares new perspectives on America's founding, exposing empire's pervasive role in spreading and justifying slavery in the new world.

As the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals approaches, From Fragmentation to Wholeness offers a profound re-examination of global transformation. While nations have pledged sustainability through targets and reforms, the world continues to face climate breakdown, widening inequality, ecological collapse, and deepening social fragmentation. This timely work argues that these crises are not merely institutional or technical, but arise from a deeper fragmentation within consciousness itself. When thought divides life into sectors, when identity fuels conflict, and when fear and desire shape ambition, institutions inevitably inherit these divisions.

Beginning from the insight that the outer world mirrors the inner movement of the self, the authors explore how patterns of thought shape climate policy, economic design, governance, education, and technology. Through three interwoven movements-the global crisis as inward division writ large; the mirror of the self in fear, memory, and psychological time; and action arising from awareness beyond identity-the book invites readers to consider transformation as an integrated process of inner and outer change. For policymakers, sustainability scholars, UN professionals, systems thinkers, educators, and students, this is not a philosophical abstraction but a practical inquiry into intelligence without identity, and institutions as living spaces, rather than instruments of control. It opens a doorway to a future where wholeness, rather than fragmentation, becomes the foundation of global action.

Cities are not just collections of roads, buildings and policies. They are living communities shaped by the aspirations, fears and decisions of their people. Yet too often, development happens to citizens instead of with them.

Designing Cities with People, Not Just for Them: The Power of Collaborative Urban Futures invites planners, engineers, policymakers and everyday citizens to reimagine how we build and transform our cities - together.

Drawing on original research - including participatory workshops, global case studies, and rigorous analysis - this book uncovers what truly makes cities inclusive, resilient and future-ready. Based on in-depth research from Digos City, Philippines, and enriched by comparative case studies, it offers a practical framework and cost-effective tools that any community can adapt. Powerful stories of co-creation from around the world illustrate key lessons applicable across diverse contexts.

For leaders who want to facilitate change rather than dictate it, and for citizens who want to reclaim their right to shape their own urban future, this book is both a guide and a call to action.

This undergraduate textbook educates non-science majors-our future policy makers-on how science works, the rules that underpin our existence, our impact on nature, and nature's impact on us. The book provides a concise, historically based, non-mathematical treatment of modern physics relevant to societal issues. It challenges readers to examine the problems we face (and their own beliefs) in light of the scientific method.

In this new edition, a large volume of material has been revised and updated, including expanded discussions on climate change, electric vehicles, and future energy sources. It contains additional new end-of-chapter problems as well as an interactive module that seeks to reduce endorsement of pseudoscience and conspiratorial beliefs by promoting critical thinking, scientific literacy, and effective self-reflection. With a narrative structure, Science and Society, 2nd Edition explains the scientific process and the power it brings to dealing with the natural world. The reader will gain a deeper understanding of scientific results reported by the media, and thus the tools to develop a rational, fact-based assessment of energy and resource policy.

Praise for Science and Society:

"Anyone who thinks society can be managed without science should think again, or better: read this book. The authors explain how science permeates society, and with simple examples of the scientific process they show its special power in dealing with the natural world. This is a must read for the world's seven billion scientists."

F.E. Close, OBE, Oxford University, author of, among others, "Half-Life: The Divided Life of Bruno Pontecorvo, Physicist or Spy", "The Infinity Puzzle", and "Neutrino"

How scarcity shapes nearly every aspect of our rental assistance programs, including the Housing Choice Voucher program.

It's no secret that the United States is experiencing a housing crisis. While the cost of rental housing has soared since 2000, the median household income has barely changed. The Housing Choice Voucher program is America's largest rental assistance program, but most households that are eligible for assistance simply cannot get access to it. Without enough resources to serve every eligible household in their communities, public housing agencies keep waiting lists, run lotteries, and claw back vouchers from households that are unable to meet the demands of the housing market. Despite the enormous benefits that come from affordable housing, it's simply out of reach for most renters in need.

In The Housing Lottery, sociologist Brian J. McCabe takes readers to the frontlines of these housing agencies to understand how scarcity shapes nearly every aspect of the program. Following the bureaucrats charged with making these decisions about allocating housing resources, McCabe shows how decisions and regulations resulting from scarcity have enormous consequences. He presents extensive evidence about the importance of rental assistance for lifting households out of poverty and creating economic opportunity. To improve housing assistance as a public resource and to combat housing insecurity and its negative effects, McCabe argues for a more inclusive, expansive approach to federal housing policy.

Reading Thoreau as a scientist for modern times

Henry David Thoreau's Walden stands as the foundational text for the environmental movement and as a model for the practice of nature writing. In The Walden Experiments, Robert Thorson tells the story of how, after several discarded drafts of social critique, Thoreau resuscitated Walden with a sharp swerve toward science. Thorson invites us to read-or reread-Walden to discover the observations, empirical thinking, and scientific explanations supporting this canonical work of literature. Chapter by chapter, he guides us through Walden's relevance for such contemporary scientific concerns as climate change, ecological collapse, water supply, agriculture, artificial intelligence, and technology.

Thoreau's first "experiment" of living deliberately took place in a one-room house at Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847. This was followed from 1851 to 1852 by a little-known second experiment of trying to live deliberately in the midst of society as a sojourning scientist. Thorson's account of a science-revitalized version of Walden helps us appreciate Thoreau's masterpiece not only for its prophetic, lyrical, uplifting, witty, and timeless advice on living sustainably, but also as a historic benchmark for anchoring our modern solutions. Exploring the science that underlies Walden enhances our understanding of the deeper meanings Thoreau draws from nature.

Beyond Microfoundations and Macrofoundations of Institutions challenges the binary distinction that has long constrained institutional scholarship. Transcending the limitations of Coleman's "bathtub" metaphor, this volume advances a multilevel theory of institutions as dynamic, recursive systems. Rather than privileging micro-action or macro-structure, the contributors view institutions as a continuum where influence flows continuously across levels-from individual cognition to societal logics.

Building on previous Research in the Sociology of Organizations volumes, this collection shifts the analytical focus from static "boxes" to the "arrows" that connect them. A central theme is that communication and language serve as the critical bridge traversing these levels, enabling meanings to aggregate and disseminate. By integrating these perspectives, this volume offers a framework where constraint and agency coevolve, encouraging scholars to "lean into" the complexity of cross-level interactions.

This book provides a naturalistic account of the problems that led Wilfrid Sellars to formulate two rival images of humans and their place in the world. According to Sellars, the scientific image separated from the manifest image during the Renaissance because philosophers and scientists agreed that mind and matter were independent of each other, and because they found that a mathematical description of matter is possible if matter is characterized by what can be measured and weighed.

Sellars argued that these two alternative images cannot be reduced to each other and indeed seemed to think that they stand as opposites to one another. This book, on the other hand, tries to show that both the manifest image and the scientific image are incomplete in different ways. The manifest picture of humanity is incomplete in the sense that new scientific discoveries about humanity are constantly being added to the picture and become part of everyday knowledge, whereas the scientific picture is incomplete so long as it either ignores or is unable to explain the nature of human experiences on which the manifest picture is based.

The book is essential reading for all philosophers of science. It is also ideal for philosophers working on ontology and metaphysics.

In a context of polycrisis and lack of opportunities for youth emancipation, it is vital to understand the socio-economic conditions, life experiences, practices, and social representations of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Peripheral Creativities examines the intersection of urban segregation, creative practices, and public policy in understanding marginalised youth living in peripheral territories.

Bringing together contributions from sociologists, anthropologists, and other social science scholars across three continents, this edited volume addresses how creativity is mobilised by young people from urban peripheral neighbourhoods, as well as their influence on the (re)definition of public policy targeting them. Developed within the PERICREATIVITY project based in Portugal, the book combines insights from PERICREATIVITY researchers with contributions from scholars working in other parts of the world, offering diverse contexts and perspectives on peripheral youth while highlighting the growing significance of artistic practices in the construction of positive identities and in the subversion of dominant stereotypes. The volume further shows how these creative practices have also been appropriated by the state as instruments of urban governance, linked to agendas of youth participation, local development, and social inclusion.

Advancing knowledge on youth creativity in segregated territories and on public policy, the book pays particular attention to urban segregation, social marginalisation, and structural inequality.

Ritual and the Body explores how people experience life's most profound transitions: birth, marriage, and death. Drawing on Ukrainian folk traditions, Maria Mayerchyk shows how rituals mark changes in social status by shaping how the body moves, speaks, eats, hears, and even feels itself to exist.

From christenings and weddings to funerals, the book follows key figures and moments of ritual life-the newborn child, parents, newlyweds, and the deceased-and reveals how bodily states, clothing, sound, food, light and darkness, joy and grief all carry meaning. With clarity and insight, Mayerchyk invites readers to see the human body as a powerful cultural language, one through which communities make sense of loss, transformation, and belonging.

The esports industry has grown into a multi-billion-dollar market, attracting millions of players and spectators worldwide. However, the psychological aspects of esports and its players remain largely unexplored in academic literature. The Psychology of Esports aims to bridge this gap by providing an in-depth analysis of the cognitive, emotional, and social dynamics that influence esports players. The book not only sheds light on how esports psychology is formed, but also discusses the field within the framework of psychological theories. By examining the many mental factors affecting players' performance (cognitive, emotional, physiological, and medical), this argument contends that esports psychology should be recognised as a distinct field.

Integrating insights from education, psychology, neuroscience, medicine, and sports science, the book offers a thorough framework for understanding the mental health/psychology of esports. It provides valuable guidance for players, coaches, and academic researchers. Beyond its academic contributions, the book has practical implications for multiple parties in the esports ecosystem. For example, coaches and team managers can use its findings to improve player mental performance and well-being. In contrast, psychologists and mental health professionals can use it to address issues such as gaming addiction, burnout, and anxiety. Additionally, game creators and industry leaders can use psychological insights to design more balanced and engaging esports environments. By fostering a deeper understanding of the psychological mechanisms behind esports, this book contributes to the long-term success of the esports industry and the well-being of those esports players.

An in-depth look at the timeless quandary of how average high school basketball players navigate their dreams of greatness with the adults who coach and support them.

We all admire the stories of famous athletes with humble origins who rose to the top through hard work and dedication. Michael Jordan and Steph Curry, after all, both started as second-string players. But their climbs to athletic dominance call to us because they seem to prove a message we all want to believe: Anything is possible with hard work and determination. But for most people, it simply isn't. Most of us will end up being more or less average rather than extraordinary.

In Playing Time, sociologist and sports scholar Scott N. Brooks introduces readers to young athletes who are middle-status players on their basketball teams-not the best, but not the worst-who often find themselves at odds with their coaches and teammates as they compete for playing time to show off their skills. Drawing on his extensive experience as a coach of middle and high school-age boys, Brooks invites us into the inner lives and daily experiences of kids, parents, and coaches, as players try to make sense of who they are and differentiate themselves on the court. These boys have been told by coaches, their parents, and society that hard work, effort, and attitude determine effectiveness, and Brooks reveals how that message affects them when it's clear that their best efforts are not always enough. Middle-status boys often feel alone, alienated, socially stigmatized, and powerless to improve their fate.

By focusing on the boys stuck in the middle, Brooks uncovers essential aspects of the formative years of adolescence when kids dream of and plan for a future. As many of us will recognize our own dreams of greatness in these kids, we can all learn to support them as they build their sense of self, both on and off the court.

This book studies and reveals perspectives on sleep from very young children (ages 2-5) and their parents. Employing interviews with children and their mothers, as well as photo elicitation, Scherer amplifies children's own voices on how sleep is managed in their homes. Research participants were recruited from The Beyond Sleep Training Project, a large Facebook group of more than 180,000 members who approach children's sleep with the aim to respond to their nighttime needs for comfort, safety, and nourishment as they would during the day. Topics covered include the history of infant sleep and sleep training, family sleep set-ups and routines, and competition and support amongst mothers discussing sleep on and offline. The book also outlines the research methodology used for interviewing very young children.