Chapters investigate deep-rooted patriarchal norms, power relations, party control, social media dynamics and intersectional inequalities across local, national, party and online spaces. Country-specific case studies reflect how historical legacies, post-socialist transformations and gender quotas have shaped women's political participation. Overall, the book demonstrates that true equality requires profound cultural change, stronger democratic institutions and a long-term commitment to gender-sensitive politics.

Women's Representation in Southeast European Politics is a crucial resource for scholars and students of gender studies, feminist political theory, political science, European studies, and sociology. It will also benefit policymakers, international organizations and NGOs interested in deepening their understanding of gender equality, due to its insights into designing gender-sensitive reforms, developing advocacy strategies and improving institutional frameworks.

Resilience in Emergency Management: Core Concepts and Practical Applications delivers essential knowledge and practical tools for navigating the complexities of emergency management and resilience.

This comprehensive handbook provides readers with the tools to understand and apply core concepts of resilience and emergency management, including societal resilience, crisis communications, recovery strategies, and the integration of innovative technologies like VR and AI. It offers detailed case studies, ethical decision-making frameworks, and actionable guidance to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Readers will gain insights into working with stakeholders, vulnerable communities, and managing humanitarian responses, while also learning to audit emergency plans and evaluate post-incident reviews. By addressing current challenges and future trends, the book empowers professionals and students to develop critical skills for effective emergency response and resilience-building.

Ideal for students, lecturers, researchers, and professionals in emergency management, this book is particularly suited for UK-focused contexts while offering globally relevant insights.

The book is supported by supplementary materials, including case studies and test banks.

Chapters explore how politicians are experimenting with new methodologies and how citizens are reclaiming political agency through citizens' assemblies, participatory budgeting, digital platforms and workplace democracy. Combining empirical case studies with theoretical and critical perspectives, the Handbook assesses examples of participatory democracy across Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America, with particular focus on experiences from the Global South. Contributing authors analyse debates on deliberation, gender, ecology, science, participation professionals and post-colonialism. Adopting a systemic perspective, the Handbook investigates the tensions, promises and limitations of participatory approaches, while also highlighting the potential for deliberative democracy to create new opportunities for improving elections.

The Handbook of Participatory Democracy is a crucial resource for scholars and students of political science, public policy and governance, sociology and postcolonial studies. Its insights into emerging debates and international experiences makes this prime reading for politicians, civil servants, journalists and activists interested in the operation of democracy.

This book explores the introduction and localization of the political concepts of left and right in Chinese media discourse from the late Qing to the late 1920s, analyzing their shift from spatial metaphors to political symbols that redefined Chinese society, politics, and culture.

Globally established as political terms in 1789, left and right began to appear in Chinese media by the late nineteenth century. This study traces their evolution, analyzing their construction and transformation within Chinese discourse. It explores their metaphorical extensions into morality and value judgments, uncovering the power structures in media narratives. The book also demonstrates how left-right discourse intersected with radical, conservative, and liberal ideologies, forming intricate conceptual networks that influenced ideological contestation and the development of political communities.

Designed for researchers and graduate students in political communication, media studies, conceptual history, Chinese studies, and comparative politics, this provides valuable insights into the evolution of political discourse, ideological categorization, and the adaptation of global political concepts in non-Western contexts.

This book examines the often-overlooked dynamics of how political actors from peripheral regions engage with central authorities to shape national policymaking. While territorial movements advocating autonomy or independence have been widely studied, this work addresses a critical gap by exploring the complex interactions between regional elites and central political actors and institutions.

By intersecting with three subfields of political science-regional studies, the sociology of elites, and ethnic studies-the chapters in this volume provide a thorough analysis of the persistence of subnational characteristics in modern states. They highlight the role of peripheral elites in negotiating with central power, the tensions faced by political actors balancing regional and central identities, and patterns of convergence and divergence among peripheral elites across diverse political regimes and regions. Drawing on case studies from California and Texas (United States), the United Kingdom, Spain, Morocco, Argentina, and China, this collective work offers both theoretical and empirical insights that enrich the center-periphery debate.

This book is an essential resource for students, scholars and practitioners in Political Science, Sociology, and Regional Studies and those interested in understanding the complex relationships between regional and central political actors. It will particularly appeal to readers exploring themes of governance, elite sociology, ethnic politics, and the territorial margins of contemporary states.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Territory, Politics, Governance.

Saidov systematically examines global case law, revealing the richness of commercial and legal landscapes to provide a balanced reflection on the diversity of trade sectors. Across the chapters he assesses different types of sale contracts, including those used in the commodities trade, long-term sale contracts, contracts of sale of manufactured goods and sale contracts embedded in supply chains. The book concludes that no single sales law is equally well suited to all contracts, sectors and commercial contexts, unless specialist sub-sets within each sales law were to be developed for each sector.

A thorough yet accessible account, International Sale of Goods Law is an essential resource for scholars and students of contract law, international commercial and sales law and comparative law. It will also benefit legal and commercial practitioners when considering which law best suits any given contract or transaction.

This book examines caste-based discrimination in India through the practice of manual scavenging and exclusion within higher education. It analyses how Untouchability persists across these distinct yet interconnected sites, adopting a legal lens grounded in international human rights law. Drawing on empirical data, the book critically engages with legislation, governmental schemes, institutional mechanisms, and case law, with particular attention to affirmative action as enshrined in the Indian Constitution. By bridging lived realities with legal framework, it highlights both the limitations and transformative potential of law in addressing caste-based inequalities. This work will be of significant interest to scholars and researchers of law, human rights, sociology, and South Asian studies, as well as policymakers.

The Muslim Brotherhood and Ennahda: Organisational Dynamics in Egypt and Tunisia since 2011 examines the organisational dynamics and capacity for change of the Arab world's two most influential Islamist movements.

Rather than foregrounding external political pressures, the book explores the internal organisational worlds of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Tunisia's Ennahda, treating them as long-standing institutions shaped by their own cultures, structures, and internal debates. Drawing on an analytical framework that places organisational culture and intra-party politics at the centre of the analysis, it investigates how each movement confronted the pressures of governing, adapting, and redefining its political role and identity after 2011. The study argues that the capacity for change within these organisations was shaped by internal dynamics: the Brotherhood's strong commitment to preserving its long-standing mission and organisational vision often constrained reform, while Ennahda struggled with a weak conceptualisation of how and why change should occur. By comparing their contrasting trajectories of party formation and institutional reconfiguration, the book highlights how each movement came to understand organisational change differently - whether as variation or replication, and as an opportunity or a threat to their foundational identity.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Middle East politics, political Islam, and comparative politics, as well as to readers seeking an alternative analytical lens to Social Movement Theory and a deeper understanding of the evolution of Islamist movements in the post-Arab Spring era.

Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the Handbook assesses the overlapping constructs and ongoing debate surrounding the definition of 'sense of place'. It explores connections to natural environments, virtual places, change over time and also broader questions such as how place can be understood across cultures and how attitudes toward places evolve. Chapters engage with non-Western, First Nations worldviews which treat 'Country' as a living, relational entity, contrasting sharply with typical Western, object-oriented models. They provide weight to the view that 'place' must be studied from many angles, and that respecting diverse, especially Indigenous, perspectives is essential for a fuller, more inclusive understanding of how people relate to the world around them. This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of this fast-developing field, while also developing theory and encouraging future research in subjects such as regeneration, social relations and digital advancements.

The Handbook on Sense of Place is a valuable resource for students and scholars of human geography, environmental psychology, cultural studies and sociology. Its insights into how people relate to the world around them will also benefit practitioners in urban and regional planning and environmental policymakers.

This book explores the evolution of one of the main principles of sovereignty in public international law: non-intervention.

Providing a framework to understand the main and current challenges to the centuries-old concepts of sovereignty and territorial sovereignty, the book covers topics such as self-determination, secession, and the use of force. Additionally, it highlights the transnational nature of cyberspace and the challenges associated with its regulation and protection. This book explores newly emerging areas that invite intervention, such as the restoration of democracy, the right to gender freedom, the protection of human rights, global environmental issues, and state-sponsored murder. International Court of Justice (ICJ) decisions, and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, help illustrate how the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention have evolved. Constantly changing international legal norms arising from developments across multiple spheres continue to challenge the supremacy of sovereignty and its constituent components. These are no longer immutably determined doctrines; they must be flexible and receptive to the ever-evolving context in which they operate. In this way, the book challenges the traditional international relations approaches to the interpretation and application of sovereignty and non-intervention, arguing for a more fluid approach to reduce confrontational relationships among the various state and non-state actors and recognising the increasingly significant role of technology in this ever-evolving international legal environment.

The book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of public international law, sovereignty, and international relations.

Key Features:

• Unique insight from the Commission, the judiciary, practitioners and academics
• Clear structure and systematic coverage facilitate navigation
• Offers practice-oriented commentaries on landmark CJEU cases situating them in the current enforcement and policy debates
• Presents comprehensive coverage of public and private enforcement
• Offers practical insights into the implications of preliminary rulings for antitrust litigation, enforcement strategy and policy development across the EU

Taking a holistic view of the field, Paul Bernal explores recurrent challenges of identity and anonymity, age-verification and biometrics, encryption and related technologies, surveillance, extraterritoriality and cross-border enforcement, and the power of the internet giants - as well as the developing fields of machine learning and AI, cryptocurrencies, and the nebulous concept of the metaverse. He examines how major legislation, such as the Online Safety Act 2023 and the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, attempt to address these challenges, and illustrate why making laws for the internet is difficult and often unsuccessful. The book highlights the common themes that underpin different areas of internet law, including unpredictability, political influence and rapid technological advancement, reflecting on future avenues for development.

Internet Law is a crucial resource for scholars and students of information and media law, internet and technology law and internet governance. It will also benefit legal practitioners and policymakers interested in furthering their understanding of the key theoretical ideas underpinning the implementation of internet law.

The second edition of The Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption showcases the most innovative research being conducted globally in the field of political corruption and provides a new point of reference for all interested in the topic.

In presenting current research trends, the handbook addresses the pressing need for more detailed understanding of the intricacies of political corruption, including the need to adapt to emerging challenges and devise more effective strategies to curb its impact on societies. The handbook provides a balance between reviewing the 'state of the art' within different disciplines and subdisciplines and offering in-depth insights into the most recent developments in the field. Alongside some updated chapters, it also covers new topics, including democratic backsliding and populism, media capture and digital journalism, illicit financial flows and money laundering, corruption in contexts of conflict and migration, and the growing use of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies in anti-corruption efforts. Its structure, themes, and direction underscore the interdisciplinary nature of corruption research, bridging disciplines such as economics, psychology, political science, and law.

The Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption is an essential reference for scholars and students within comparative politics, global governance, economics, development studies, criminology and criminal justice, sociology, anthropology, psychology, law, and international relations. More broadly, it will appeal to policymakers, activists, journalists, and practitioners in civil society organisations, focusing on transparency and accountability.

The book provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities presented by AI across the insurance value chain. As insurers rapidly integrate machine learning, deep learning, and predictive analytics into underwriting, claims processing, fraud detection, and pricing, the need for robust ethical frameworks and responsible AI governance has become paramount. Algorithmic structures and data pipelines that shape modern insurance systems, that review potential sources of bias, opacity, and inequality are examined. The book addresses technical, legal, and organizational dimensions of ethical AI adoption-ranging from explainability and accountability mechanisms to data privacy, informed consent, and inclusion. The book serves as a foundational guide for developing AI systems in insurance that are not only efficient but also equitable and socially responsible. The book will be invaluable for professionals, scholars, data scientists, actuaries, and policymakers.

Key Features:

• Explores cutting-edge applications of AI across underwriting, claims processing, fraud detection, and dynamic pricing in the insurance industry.
• Reviews the latest advances in algorithmic fairness, explainability (XAI), and bias mitigation techniques tailored to insurance models.
• Analyzes global regulatory and ethical frameworks, including GDPR, AI Act, and sector-specific policies, shaping responsible AI adoption.
• Provides real-world case studies and technical insights into building accountable, transparent, and inclusive AI systems for insurers.
• Equips practitioners, data scientists, and policymakers with strategic tools to design, govern, and audit ethical AI in insurance operations.

Through diverse case studies, Kshetri demonstrates the possibilities for this technology in building trust where it is currently lacking, and as a powerful tool against corruption and inefficiency. This second edition also includes expanded coverage of the Metaverse and Web3 gaming, featuring up-to-date economic impact analysis of Play-to-Earn models, as well as recent data on market valuations, adoption rates and developer growth. Ultimately, the book emphasizes that blockchain's future lies in creating a transparent, global infrastructure for any transaction requiring a verifiable record of truth.

The Rise of Blockchains is an invaluable resource for scholars and students of business and management, economics and information systems. Strategists, technology developers and legal and compliance professionals will also benefit from practical insights into this rapidly evolving field.

The author eschews traditional, single-country approaches and adopts a comparative perspective. The Modern Guide explores the economics of happiness, examining why some middle-income economies score higher on the happiness index than recent economic success stories. It also investigates the nature and quality of democratic governance, economic growth, poverty and inequality, and the labour market across Asia. The book assesses Asian economies from the perspective of the Millenium Development Goals and UN Sustainable Development Goals, evaluating how countries across Asia are managing climate change.

A Modern Guide to Developing Asian Economies is a pivotal resource for scholars and students seeking to broaden their understanding of Asian economics and development studies. Economists and NGO workers will also benefit from its comprehensive lens and timely suggestions.

Leading experts integrate decades of scholarship with recent advances in the field, addressing foundational questions such as why firms merge, how value is created and distributed between stakeholders, how markets and regulators respond to acquisitions, and how mergers affect innovation, labor markets, and industry structure. The chapters combine diverse empirical approaches and theoretical perspectives, from classic event-study evidence to behavioral economics, cross-border institutional research, activist investors, and structural estimation, highlighting both enduring findings, including persistent gains to targets and the mixed performance of acquirers, and emerging research frontiers shaped by globalization, private capital, and data-driven methods.

This Companion offers researchers and students in business, economics, finance, and management an authoritative guide to what we know about mergers and acquisitions and where the field is heading. Practitioners and policymakers will likewise benefit from its insights into how M&A continue to shape corporate organization and economic activity in an era of technological and geopolitical change.

In seventeenth-century England goldsmiths became what we would now recognise as bankers. Goldsmiths' shops sold not only gold and silver plate but also instruments of credit, such as bonds and bills of exchange, and offered 'safe' places to lodge capital at interest. As well as offering financial services to private individuals, goldsmith bankers also became trusted financial agents to the Crown.

Whilst some goldsmith banks still survive today, and the likes of Coutts are still associated with the Crown, the link between goldsmiths and banking is largely forgotten in modern Britain. This book explores the history of goldsmith banking from its early seventeenth-century origins, through its maturity in the Restoration, the collapse of significant goldsmith banks following the 1672 Stop on the Exchequer, and the continuation of goldsmith banking through the 'financial revolution', formation of the Bank of England, and beyond. It combines a general narrative with examples of specific goldsmith banks throughout the period to examine goldsmith bankers' practices, the instruments they dealt in and popularised, and the innovations in finance they instituted.

This concise introduction to goldsmith banking is ideal for students, academics, and those with a general interest in financial history or early modern London.

This book traces 300 years of sumo's economic and social history, examining how it survived and evolved through major historical upheavals including the Great Fire of Edo, the Meiji Restoration, and World War II. It explores how sumo developed as immigrants flowed into Edo, and how the tradition has transformed into Japan's most globalized labor market today. The book also analyzes how dismissed Yokozuna (sumo champions) became innovators who reshaped the sumo world.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are redefining the educational landscape across schools, universities, and training institutions worldwide. This book explores how these technologies are reshaping teaching, learning, assessment, governance, and institutional strategy in the evolving EduTech era.

Bringing together international scholars and practitioners, this volume examines the integration of AI and IoT from multiple perspectives: pedagogical, institutional, strategic, ethical, and environmental. It addresses resistance to technological change, the development of smart classrooms, prompt literacy for educators, AI-ready school models, and policy-to-practice transitions in higher education. The book also explores teacher identity transformation through AI co-teaching tools, equity challenges in global EdTech ecosystems, and empirical insights such as evidence from British universities. Furthermore, it analyzes smart diagnostics, personalized learning systems, sustainability concerns related to AI and IoT infrastructures, and the broader connection between digital transformation and education. Through conceptual frameworks, case studies, and policy analysis, the book provides a comprehensive roadmap for responsible and effective AI-driven educational innovation.

This book is intended for researchers, policymakers, school leaders, higher education administrators, EdTech professionals, and graduate students in education, digital transformation, and innovation management. It will also benefit practitioners seeking strategic guidance for implementing AI and IoT solutions in educational environments.

This book focuses on the role of transdisciplinarity in addressing crises and other complex problems inside higher education institutions. It argues for enacting transdisciplinary practices in administrative decision-making, programmatic redesign, faculty development, assessment, curricular revision, and social justice initiatives. The authors show how transdisciplinary structures allow institutions to better recognize and address complex issues such as environmental sustainability, general wellbeing, on-campus diversity, equity, inclusivity, and justice. The book draws on evidence gathered from studying the transdisciplinary practices at various schools in the US states of California, Iowa, Arizona, North Carolina, and Nevada.

The volume will be an indispensable resource for students and researchers of education studies and higher education institutions. It will also be a great resource for administrators, department and program chairs, educational developers, directors, assessment and institutional effectiveness staff, and student support personnel.

Chapters always start with a 'human universal' approach, highlighting how shared mental mechanisms shape interpersonal relationships across time and cultures. All chapters also examine key group and individual differences, acknowledging the depth of interaction between ancestral, developmental, and situational contexts. At the end of each chapter De Backer critically reflects on how the digital age (re)shapes interpersonal relations. The book encourages readers to reflect carefully on how they relate to others, and why interpersonal relations are so important for human life.

Understanding Interpersonal Relations is a vital resource for scholars and students of psychology, sociology, anthropology, digital media, and communication studies. Educators, coaches, and practicing psychologists will also benefit from its conceptual tools and ethically grounded insights.

Newman offers a unique account of eleven commonly used verbs of British English (eat, drink, sit, stand, lie, etc.), combining corpus-linguistic methods and the analytical tools of Langacker's Cognitive Grammar. For each verb, an original data set of 100 concordance lines representing both spoken and written registers is the basis for identifying patterns of usage and their relative frequencies.

The empirical approach leads to usage-based conclusions that are not usually found in dictionaries or grammars, e.g., patterns of cooccurrence of phrases with the verbs and the relative frequencies of the verbs in their non-literal senses. Complementing the usage-based analysis of each verb is a Cognitive Grammar account of the main semantic structures associated with the verbs, employing intellectually provocative Langacker-style diagrammatic representations. The verbs may be very "ordinary" words in the view of speakers who will feel that they know these verbs very well. Subjecting them to analysis as in this book, however, shows them to have considerable semantic complexity, even when used in their everyday literal senses, and an impressive richness in the range of their semantic extensions.

Perfect for researchers and postgraduate students in cognitive linguistics and English language study.

Chew, Shangeetha and Pillai offer valuable insights into the future of language use and development in Southeast Asia, one of the most diverse and culturally rich regions with differing socio-economic and political ecologies.

Through a rich tapestry of perspectives, the chapters provide an analysis of the current and future trajectories of language use; examining English's role as a lingua franca and its implications for communication across diverse communities. It also delves into the preservation and revitalisation of endangered Indigenous languages, shedding light on their cultural, environmental and societal importance. Additionally, the book explores how migration, internationalisation and technology are transforming linguistic practices and shaping language education. Readers will gain insights into how different forces are influencing communication, identity and societal development in a globalised world.

With each chapter offering in-depth case studies and research, it is an essential resource for academics and scholars of both sociolinguistics and Southeast Asian studies. It is also valuable to linguists, educators and policymakers who are engaged in the planning of language teaching and learning.

Most previous studies of Adam Smith's methodology, with a few exceptions, have placed considerable emphasis on the undeniable influence of Newtonian physics and Humean empiricism.

This book argues that other sources are at least as important: Smith's own didactic rhetoric and the methodological writings of Rene Descartes. Smith began his public life in 1748, lecturing on rhetoric in Edinburgh. During this time he also wrote a history of astronomy, tracing its development from the age of mythical thought to Descartes (later incorporating Newton's ideas). In his History of Astronomy, he was less concerned with the truth value of theories than with their ability to quiet the human imagination by systematically combining numerous phenomena under a few unifying principles. In his lectures on rhetoric, he considered this approach to be the best method of didactic exposition. In both cases, he attached the greatest importance to one of the authors he cited most often between 1748 and 1763, Descartes. As such, Descartes and rhetoric were central to the young Smith's thinking prior to the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Consequently, any methodological examination of Smith's published works must be framed as a question of didactic exposition seen through a Cartesian lens.

This book will appeal particularly to historians of philosophy and economic theory, as well as to scholars of Adam Smith's life and work.

This coursebook introduces philosophy of mind as it is practiced in the third decade of the 21st century to a wide range of readers. It provides any interested student, researcher, or general reader-no matter their academic background-with an appreciation of what philosophers of mind do.

The book is particularly well suited for classroom use: each of the 20 chapters contains enough material for one standard week of classes, including an editorial preface, an essay, a response to that essay, discussion questions, and suggestions for further readings. The 42 contributing authors address perennial philosophical puzzles about consciousness, perception, thought, and agency from 21st century perspectives. They also address new philosophical issues that arise from research in psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. And they do so without assuming any background knowledge of philosophy or the relevant sciences, using clear prose and vivid examples to communicate what experts understand about the mind, what fascinating philosophical puzzles remain, and what solutions to those puzzles are currently under consideration. The book is thus well positioned as a highly readable introduction for undergraduates and general readers, while also getting graduate students and professors quickly up to speed with current debates in philosophy of mind.

Key Features

• Each of the 20 self-contained, multi-authored chapters is designed for one week of college-level instruction and includes a preface, a main essay, a response to that essay, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading
• Written by an international team of 42 experts with specializations that cover all aspects of philosophy of mind
• A comprehensive glossary clearly defines all important terms, which are bolded the first time they are used in each chapter