This book fills a critical gap in research on the shipbreaking industry by analyzing the shortcomings of current international and domestic laws. It argues that existing frameworks, such as the Hong Kong Convention and Basel Convention, are insufficient in protecting workers' health and safety, as evidenced by ongoing fatalities and work-related diseases in South Asia's shipbreaking industry.

The book proposes a new framework that goes beyond prevention to include compensation, holding international shipowners accountable for the harm caused to workers. This includes introducing a Shipbreaking Liability Certificate (SLC) and accompanying insurance, ensuring that affected workers or their families receive compensation. Drawing on lessons from other industries with successful regulatory changes, the book suggests that these measures be adopted under a legal framework supported by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

In addition to its practical recommendations, the book contributes a new theoretical approach by applying rectificatory global justice to the issue of shipbreaking, an area largely unexplored in existing literature. The combination of legal analysis and case studies provides a strong foundation for the proposed civil liability framework, offering a comprehensive solution to the challenges faced by the shipbreaking industry. This book is essential reading for anyone involved in the shipbreaking industry, from policymakers and legal experts to shipowners and international organizations.

How is the rise of globalization-driven cultural conflict reflected in the metropolitan geography of public opinion and voting behaviour? This book answers that question by exploring divides between metropolitan centres and outskirts in contemporary Europe. It highlights how increased polarization between traditionalist-authoritarian-nationalist and green-alternative-libertarian values has a distinct metropolitan dimension - one rarely examined so far. This dimension is shaped by both compositional and contextual factors, such as geographic peripherality and housing market dynamics. Essential reading for understanding how urban and suburban contexts are associated with political behaviour in ways that transcend traditional left-right divides.

How can transitional justice take root where there is no transition? This book confronts this central tension by examining the Kurdish conflict in Turkey - a context where the absence of a transitional moment has not prevented grassroots actors from building a justice process of their own. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, it maps the transitional justice ecosystem in Turkey: the actors who sustain it, the demands they articulate, the strategies they pursue, and the networks they forge under conditions of ongoing conflict and authoritarian regime.

Rather than treating transitional justice as something imposed from above, the book situates civil society as its driving force, contributing to a broader rethinking of the field. Its conceptual contribution lies in the application of relationality as an analytical lens, drawing on feminist moral philosophy and relational sociology to unpack complex victim agency. The book offers empirical and theoretical tools for scholars and practitioners studying justice struggles in contexts that resist easy categorisation.

This book offers a groundbreaking moral analysis of the metaphysical empire-a concept that captures the lingering cultural and intellectual dominance of colonialism in postcolonial Africa. Drawing on African philosophy and ethics, Frank Aragbonfoh Abumere examines how colonial legacies continue to shape identity, culture, and thought, often in ways that are morally problematic. Rather than viewing the metaphysical empire solely through political or metaphysical lenses, Abumere approaches it as a moral phenomenon, evaluating whether it is ethically acceptable, reprehensible, or neutral. Through a nuanced exploration of African cultural identity, colonialism's enduring legacy, and the contested meanings of decolonization, the book challenges readers to reconsider the moral dimensions of cultural interaction and appropriation. It engages with both critics and defenders of the metaphysical empire, ultimately asking whether decolonization is a moral obligation or an unnecessary pursuit. This timely and thought-provoking work contributes to African philosophy, postcolonial theory, and decolonization studies, offering fresh insights into the ethics of empire and cultural transformation.

This handbook provides a comprehensive examination of age diversity at work. As with the previous edition, this fully updated and expanded resource remains unique in its coverage of multiple perspectives on this issue. It considers generational and ageing approaches to age diversity, and a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

This book contains contributions from leading scholars from across the world to discuss recent research findings about the nature and impact of age diversity, and how to manage this phenomenon. It contains both updated and entirely new chapters that reflect emerging research streams and contemporary issues related to age diversity and work, including menopause and work, flexible and hybrid working, post-COVID changes, sustainable work, workability approaches, third age entrepreneurship, and digitalisation and emerging technologies. It will be of great importance to scholars and students of HRM, diversity and inclusivity, organisation studies and sociology of work.

This book addresses the issue of climate change in Latin America from an intersectional perspective, making women visible as agents of change. By placing gender at the heart of the ecological debate, the book denounces the multiple layers of vulnerability faced by women and proposes a model of resilience and social transformation led by women. In a time of climate emergency, growing inequality, and the need for systemic solutions, this book calls for rethinking our relationships with the environment, recognising the transformative power of historically marginalised voices, and building coalitions that transcend geographical, cultural, and gender boundaries. It will be of interest to researchers in gender studies, ecofeminism, environmental justice, and Latin American studies.

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

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

This book introduces the maritime activities of India, which date back to the Harappan period, highlighting that India is one of the world's oldest seafaring nations. It summarises archaeological findings, inscriptions, epigraphy, and various written sources that have significantly contributed to reconstructing the sea-oriented history of the Indian subcontinent. This history includes understanding contacts with the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea coast, and Southeast Asian countries from the early historical period onward. Geographers and travellers, including the anonymous author of the 'Periplus of the Erythraean Sea,' Ptolemy, Megasthenes, Hiuen Tsang, Al-Masudi, Marco Polo, and many others, have documented India's maritime connections with overseas countries across the centuries. In the last three decades, scholars from various universities and research organisations have conducted extensive exploration and excavations along India's west and east coasts, uncovering several ports and trade centres. Some of these can be matched with sites mentioned by ancient geographers and travellers, while others have been newly discovered through archaeological research.

Along with the second volume, this book presents the most recent research findings from over fifty experts in the maritime archaeology of India. It serves as a valuable reference for scholars studying the Indian Ocean trade and South Asia from a long-term perspective.

This book offers the first comprehensive legal-criminological study of terrorism and reintegration in Malaysia, positioning the country within wider Southeast Asian and global debates. Despite its strategic role in regional counter-terrorism and rehabilitation efforts, Malaysia remains understudied compared to Indonesia and the Philippines. Moving beyond ideological or psychological explanations, the book situates terrorism within lived experience.

Drawing on original interviews with ISIS-related returnees from Syria and Afghanistan, former Guantanamo Bay detainees, and individuals prosecuted under Malaysian counter-terrorism laws, it examines how radicalisation, detention, and reintegration unfold in practice. Bridging theory and policy, the analysis explores how law, criminology, and human rights shape both state responses and individual trajectories, and evaluates key counter-terrorism frameworks including SOSMA, POTA, and the Penal Code, against global standards of due process, proportionality, and accountability.

Centred on detainee and returnee experiences, the book explores incarceration, stigma, trauma, and reintegration challenges, foregrounding voices often absent from official narratives, including those from non-Arab-speaking communities. It argues that an overreliance on securitisation and theology perpetuates stigma and undermines long-term prevention, and calls for a more holistic, rights-based reintegration framework.

This book compiles papers originally presented at a conference held in Hong Kong in August 2025. The publication commemorates the centenary, in 2026, of the appointment of six Chinese bishops in Rome-a landmark event that ushered in a new era in the history of the Catholic Church in China. The 1926 consecration of these bishops marked a transformative shift toward indigenization, elevating Chinese clergy to positions of significant authority and influence for the first time since the consecration of Luo Wenzao in the seventeenth century. This milestone not only demonstrated the Church's commitment to fostering local leadership but also challenged the longstanding dominance of Western ecclesiastical structures.
In marking this centenary, the book invites reflection on broader themes of localization, cultural adaptation, and identity within global Catholicism. Contributors from diverse academic disciplines and perspectives examine the evolving roles, responsibilities, and challenges faced by Chinese cardinals and bishops over the past century. Their research delves into how these Church leaders have navigated the complex intersections of faith, culture, and national identity, particularly during periods of social and political upheaval. Collectively, these studies shed light on the dynamic evolution and enduring significance of the Catholic Church in modern Chinese society.

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

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

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

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

This book argues that Colombia and China have been linked since the earliest Spanish colonial period through a little-known commercial sphere that historiography has largely overlooked. Drawing on primary sources from national archives and tracing scattered references in Chinese historiography, it demonstrates that New Granada-today Colombia and Panama-sustained a consistent commercial relationship with China, particularly through the consumption of diverse textiles.

Revisiting this historical encounter offers a fresh perspective on the economic and cultural dynamics of the eighteenth century, a period traditionally framed as one of mainly European dominance. Evidence from smuggling records and testamentary files in Colombian and Spanish archives shows that New Grenadian society consumed significant quantities of Chinese goods, including silk, angaripolas, and damascos. These findings support two central claims: first, that New Granada actively participated in global markets during the eighteenth century; and second, that Chinese commodities enabled cultivated forms of global sociability within the region.

This book responds to the growing presence of "middle elements"-intermediaries and migration agents-in the facilitation of labour migration and advances an economic sociological explanation for their rising relevance in the contemporary migration landscape. Rather than treating the proliferation of agents as an organic development of neoliberal capitalism or attributing migrant precarity solely to their mediation, the book reconceptualizes brokerage as an institutionally constituted and contested market of migration services. It argues that a market perspective offers fresh insights into why migration agents consolidate into a durable industry, how brokerage serves the interests of labour exporting, remittance-dependent emigration states such as Nepal, and why intermediaries persist despite the stabilization of migrant social networks and the expansion of state mechanisms that replicate and attempt to replace commercial brokerage. By examining market organization, the sedimentation of its practices, and struggles over market legitimacy, the book reveals how brokerage reshapes state- market relations, governance structures, and migrant labour processes for readers interested in migration, sociology of work, labour and migration policy.

This book offers a multidimensional analysis of task engagement in second language (L2) teaching and learning, with a particular focus on task-based language teaching (TBLT). It revisits key task-based theories and critically reviews the literature through the lens of task engagement, before presenting empirical findings on the factors that shape learners' engagement during task performance. The book offers theoretical and methodological insights into researching task engagement and links these insights to pedagogical implications for task design and implementation, as well as suggestions for teacher training and professional development. Bridging theory, research, and practice, this book helps researchers, language teaching practitioners, and postgraduate students develop a nuanced understanding of the nature and dynamics of task engagement in TBLT. It also provides practical guidance on how to design and implement L2 tasks that effectively engage learners in both face-to-face and virtual learning environments.

This book is the first academic work to comprehensively examine fact-checking practices outside Western democracies, featuring exclusively Global South voices. Unlike existing literature dominated by Western perspectives, this volume provides insider knowledge from scholars and practitioners operating in challenging environments with limited resources, political instability, and restricted data access. The book introduces concepts like "checktainment" and explores AI deployment in non-Western contexts, revealing how fact-checkers adapt methodologies to local conditions. Written by Global South scholars and practitioners with direct experience, it fills a critical gap in understanding how misinformation is combated across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Volume 1 offers an overview of the fact-checking ecosystem in the Global South, pointing out the differences with Western democracies and considering the institutions behind fact-checking organizations, cooperative endeavours, and the deployment of emerging technologies in the industry.

The book traces developments in mathematics education for the entire duration of Czechoslovakia (1918-1993). It focuses on the attempts of Czechoslovak mathematicians to reform mathematics education in the country and their navigating between their own original ideas and the changes promoted by international organisations such as the ICMI and UNESCO and the congresses organised by them, known as modern mathematics, New Math, or in Czechoslovakia, the set-theoretical approach. Three distinct points were constitutive of the movement: mathematicians fascinated by modern maths; mathematicians and educators believing this was panacea for progress; and the recognition that this nevertheless does not work for everybody. This book describes the case of Czechoslovakia rooted in historical events, including the arrival of the automatic computer, research in mathematics was considered of utmost importance and accordingly, mathematics became the most important school subject.