This book seeks a common tread linking economic growth, urban development and environmental sustainability, specifically focusing on urban and metropolitan contexts in developed countries. Starting from a theoretical reflection on capitalistic growth models and the evolution of territorial inequalities, it examines how social and environmental dynamics intersect with economic processes, highlighting the central role of urban areas as innovation, productivity and social transformation engines. It underlines the necessity of new governance strategies aimed at fostering sustainable growth pathways, through inclusive public policies and integrated urban tools. The second part of the book delves into the concept of sustainable development within the context of global warming. The phenomenon of urban sprawl is analyzed, with a focus on critical issues related to demographic growth, "coastlization" and land consumption. It then proposes a polycentric model as an answer to more balanced urban growth. In this framework, territorial economics gains relevance as an emerging tool to study the intricate relationship between competitiveness and sustainability. The analysis starts with describing settlement pattern development and, considering the impact of polycentrism on urban-rural relations, it emphasizes how spatial planning can integrate environmental and economic considerations at various spatial scales. The book concludes with a reflection on social inequalities and the necessity for multilevel governance to sustainably face contemporary urban challenges.

This book explores the transformative role of Uthman bin Fodio in the reformation of Nigerian society, tracing his da?wah (religious calling) from its earliest expressions to the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate in the 19th century. While much has been written about his legacy, this study uniquely focuses on the initial motivations, methods, and communal strategies he employed, often overlooked in mainstream scholarship. Building upon the foundational theory of societal change (?umran) by Ibn Khaldun, the work examines the intellectual and spiritual interplay between the Maghribi thinker and the West African reformer. It argues that Ibn Khaldun's cyclical theory of social development deeply informed Uthman bin Fodio's vision, tactics, and success in transitioning society from a traditional to an Islamic governance model. Engaging both classical Islamic thought and historical sociology, this book fills a critical gap in understanding the ideological roots and methodological strategies behind one of the most significant Islamic reform movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. It will be a vital resource for students, historians, Islamic scholars, and anyone interested in the intersection of religion, society, and political change in Africa.

This short, engaging book challenges the widely held belief that 'classical liberalism' is the original and authentic form of liberalism. The book argues that this narrative - often used to position libertarianism as the true liberal tradition and social democratic liberalism as a distortion - is built on historical misunderstandings of the terms 'liberal' and 'liberalism'.

Focusing on English and American contexts, the book uses primary sources to show that the free-market doctrines of Adam Smith, later interpreted by thinkers like Hayek and Friedman as libertarian principles, should not be conflated with liberalism. Instead, liberalism first emerged in nineteenth-century England as a political philosophy rooted in constitutionalism and republicanism. The book also examines how Franklin D. Roosevelt reshaped American political language by associating "liberals" with New Deal supporters and "conservatives" with its opponents. By exploring these two pivotal moments and the broader political and economic history that connects them, de Marneffe redefines classical liberalism and critiques rigid interpretations of liberal thought. This book will appeal to scholars of politics, philosophy, economics, and the history of ideas.

This volume adds to the increasingly important debate on religion and modernity and their complex interplay in Muslim-majority societies. Taking up the case of Bangladesh, the discussions are highly topical given the recent upsurges in the country. The volume offers a comprehensive perspective on the changing dynamics of Islamization and secularization processes in Bangladeshi society and deconstructs the binary opposition between religion and secular modernity as inapplicable not just to Bangladesh but also to Muslim societies elsewhere.

The contributors mostly apply anthropological approaches to cover four broad themes: transformation of identity beyond Islamization and secularization; Islamic movements in democratic arena; Islamic culture in public sphere; and beyond polarization of women's liberation and Islamization. They cast light on religion and modernity, identity politics, development, globalization, the digital space, Islamic movements, and gender identity and patriarchal structure in Bangladesh. The incisive analyses of the cases and themes presented here will help readers understand how Islamization intersects with secularization/modernity in Bangladesh, within the broader South Asian sociopolitical context. The volume is of interest to scholars of Bangladesh studies, and historians, anthropologists, feminists, political scientists, and researchers of South Asia. Policy makers and development and non-governmental professionals will also benefit from the issues, cases, and myriad examples incorporated in this volume.

This textbook takes a new approach to Political Economy: it combines the well-known non-quantitative theories with the findings of behavioral science and other disciplines such as psychology and sociology. The question of how people behave and how such behavior can be guided towards welfare for everyone is the focus of this book. The knowledge is first derived scientifically, then the results are presented in summaries and conclusions. Case studies provide a link to practice. By means of exercises and behavioral games, readers can apply and deepen their acquired knowledge. The second edition has been completely revised and updated. Insights and didactic experiences from the Political Economy lectures held in the meantime have been incorporated.

This Open Access volume sheds light on the economic role and true value of non-human animals' in the global economy. Animals have been a pillar of human prosperity since the dawn of civilization. From early hunting and domestication to their roles in agriculture, science, transportation, wars, and entertainment, animals have shaped our world. Today, their contributions span from providing food and energy to supporting ecosystem services like pollination and pest control.

But animals are more than commodities-they are indispensable economic agents whose labor and agency have shaped the very foundations of our economic systems. This book honors their lives and contributions, and calls for a reassessment of their full worth: economically, ecologically, and ethically. Documenting how animals remain overlooked in economic studies, this book addresses this gap, by exploring their contributions in today's economies, reassessing their true economic value, and proposing innovative ways to reflect this in economic decision-making. Covering all sectors of human-animal economic interaction, this comprehensive volume connects economics with other disciplines, applying frontier research on the valuation of nature to non-human animals.

The book also explores economic policy and regulatory solutions to help recognize animal agency and ecological interdependence, presenting examples of how more humane, animal-free systems can reduce inefficiencies, spark innovation, and enhance both ecological and economic resilience. Essential for understanding our past and future, this book highlights the indispensable role of animals in a sustainable economy. It will appeal to scholars, students, and researchers of economics and across other disciplines, as well as to policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the role of natural capital in economies and, specifically, the value and contributions of non-human animals to economic growth and stability.

This open access book presents a new approach to growth amid international efforts toward sustainable development Quality growth considers inclusiveness, resilience to external shocks (natural disasters, infectious diseases, financial crises etc.) and sustainability in terms of climate and environmental change as integral parts of growth, thereby maximizing people's wellbeing. This approach aims to complement and advance the SDGs before moving beyond them to address broader challenges. This book seeks to elucidate the concept of quality growth from the perspective of economic theory and is primarily intended as an academic resource for practitioners, researchers and students interested in development. The conceptual approach part of the book covered in Chapters 1 to 9 provides a comprehensive review of theoretical background that underpin this approach and a proposal on how quality growth could be measured. The country case study part of the book, Chapters 10 to 14, considers how growth, inclusiveness, sustainability, and resilience have evolved in practice, with an in-depth analysis of case studies from five countries. This book is to discuss the interrelationships among growth, inclusiveness, sustainability, and resilience in an integrated manner, a feature rarely found in other works. The proposed measures for quality growth also add value to the international debates over indicators that extend "beyond GDP."

This book presents a thorough overview of contemporary investing challenges and analyses how behavioral and neuroeconomics research can inform our understanding of the investment landscape today. It brings forward an original conceptual framework - the Triadic system (Deterministic-Stochastic-Divine) to analyse our understanding of rational behaviour.

Combining economic theory with practical insights and applications, the book explores major obstacles to rational, informed investing, and how psychological biases shape financial and emotional decisions. Integrating perspectives from behavioral finance and neuroeconomics into the domain of personal finance, the book both advances research in this emergent field while outlining practical long-term wealth management strategies. Chapters consider topics such as the role of social media bombardment on investment decisions, postmoney theory and the concept of 'buying life, buying health', traditional investment planning versus the speed of fintech platforms, and the multifaceted impact of AI on investing. This will be a fascinating read for academics working on corporate finance and asset management, behavioral finance and economics, and artificial intelligence, as well as professionals working in these related areas.

This book demonstrates why "error minimization at the edge of chaos" is important and discusses its implementation in EMA (error-minimization algorithm), which is a descriptive apparatus that is applied to 27 languages. It claims that C_HL emerges at the edge of chaos (the boundary of disorder and order), borrowing the terminology from Stuart Kauffman, a complex systems researcher. Morphosyntactic features signify disorder for C_HL, CI, and SM because they are uninterpretable (chaotic; viral) for meaning-computation (CI) and sound-computation (SM). However, C_HL is resilient in eliminating morphosyntactic features to restore order (create structures). This book proposes that C_HL evolved as an error-minimizing system. Incidentally, error minimization is at the heart of mathematics, an artificial language. The target audience includes professional linguists, postgraduate students, and general readers who intend to understand the scientific significance of generative syntax.

Drawing on real-world case studies investigating online misinformation and political communication, the authors demonstrate how Wikibase bridges the qualitative-quantitative divide, allowing teams to store unstructured content whilst building structured relationships through their data. Accessible to diverse skill sets with guidance ranging from conceptual frameworks for qualitative researchers to technical implementation for computational specialists, it fosters genuine interdisciplinary integration. Solutions to interdisciplinary collaboration challenges are presented, including shared conceptual frameworks (ontologies), common terminology development and workflows that accommodate diverse methodological expertise.

How to use Wikibase for Mixed-Methods Research is a crucial resource for scholars and students adopting mixed methods across multiple disciplines, particularly those in the social sciences, digital humanities and computational fields. Researchers working on collaborative projects in education, health sciences, public policy and digital communication studies will benefit from this book's guidance on maximising the capabilities and resources of Wikibase.

The global landscape of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has shifted dramatically in recent years. Protectionism, COVID-19, and the push for sustainability have disrupted traditional FDI flows beyond traditional manufacturing sectors and created new opportunities and challenges. With emerging economies increasingly competing for investment and developed countries reassessing their roles in global supply chains, there is a need for a fresh perspective on how FDI is adapting to this new reality. Amadi sheds light on the varying impact and strategies of FDI in different economic settings, including case studies from key countries like Nigeria, India, the UK, Kenya, and Vietnam, offering comparative insights into how FDI is reshaping all economies.

The International Studies in Small Business and Entrepreneurship Research Series opens a new chapter, as it seeks to advance discussions that consolidate conventional knowledge. The purpose of this initiative is to invite new reflections on the nature of entrepreneurship and small business across contexts. The collections in this series aim to improve the theoretical rigour and practical relevance of the field. The emphasis is to advance contemporary contributions that matter for small business and entrepreneurship, directing us to underexplored and under-theorised contexts.

The book features a lively and diverse range of perspectives on critical food pedagogy from field-leading senior academics through to emerging researchers. Each chapter focuses on an essential concept within food studies - from food agency and de-meatification, to food politics and food justice, among many others. The chapters offer guidance on teaching by providing a summary of the concept, highlighting its importance to food studies, outlining the key scholarly debates and including further reading suggestions.

Teaching Food Studies is an essential resource for students and academics in food studies across disciplines. It is also a key read for educators in higher education institutions as well as practitioners and policymakers involved in food insecurity, food justice, food policy and food sovereignty work.

Chapters present a historical perspective on primary areas of experimental economics, illustrated with critical data-based figures. Topics covered include market experiments, asset market bubbles, prospect theory, risk preferences, belief elicitation, behavioral biases, behavioral and stochastic game theory, and trust and incentives. The book also provides practical insights into auction design based on the author's extensive experience developing instruments including emissions and irrigation permits, combinatorial broadcast licenses and a diverse set of securities.

This book is highly recommended for scholars and students interested in the implications and the history of controlled economic experiments. Those in the field of experimental economics, and related social sciences such as political science will benefit from this book's insights.

Analysing inequality both within a country and at an international level, the Companion explores topics such as tropical land use change, affordable access to safe drinking water, mining governance, oil cartels, fiscal policy and unequal resource distribution. Contributors demonstrate that institutional quality is a prerequisite for the equitable use of natural resources, both domestically and internationally. The Companion advances our limited understanding of inequality and its relationship with the natural environment, including understudied areas such as gender and ethnicity.

The Elgar Companion on Inequality and Natural Resources is a crucial resource for scholars and students of the natural environment, international development, geography, politics and public policy and sociology. It will also benefit managers and actors responsible for managing and taxing natural resources and multilateral agencies who assist governments in managing their natural resource wealth.

Contributing authors present a comparative assessment of international resource governance strategies, outlining the role of natural resources in shaping the global supply chains of energy transition and advanced manufacturing. Chapters consider legal, political economy and sociological dimensions, while examining the varying forms of state-society relations embedded in the extractives sector. The Handbook provides a commodity-specific analysis of resource governance and development, namely concerning the extraction of oil and gas, platinum group metals, tin and nickel. Drawing on key global case studies, it investigates the long-term implications of efforts to resolve the climate emergency whilst managing strategic competition among international powers.

The Handbook of Resource Nationalism is a valuable resource for scholars and students of comparative political economy, development studies, sociology and public policy. It is also highly relevant to policymakers, policy advocates and third sector researchers interested in understanding resource governance, politics, initiatives and outcomes.

Expert contributors critically investigate how land, housing, infrastructure and even nature are recast as assets for global investors. Drawing on case studies spanning agribusiness regions in Brazil, earthquake-stricken villages in Nepal and Canadian forests and mines, the authors trace the contours, actors and power relations of planetary financialisation. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, they advance a spatial and socioecological lens exposing how the planet, in all its socio-ecological dimensions, has become the terrain of financial markets' extractive practices, as well as the frictions, contradictions and limits that unsettle them.

This Handbook is a crucial resource for scholars, students and researchers of human and financial geography, urban and economic sociology, architecture and planning, as well as anthropology and political science. Its coverage of urban development and socio-environmental (de)regulation also makes this essential reading for activists and policymakers concerned with the socio-environmental consequences of financialisation.

This handbook brings together cutting-edge academic research and expert policy analysis across fiscal, monetary, structural, and environmental domains. Public debt continues to rise at an unprecedented pace. According to OECD projections, sovereign bond issuance among advanced economies is expected to reach USD 17 trillion by the end of 2025, up from USD 14 trillion in 2024. In emerging and developing economies, issuance has surged from USD 1 trillion in 2023 to USD 3 trillion in 2024-a threefold increase, underscoring the growing fiscal burden.It explores strategies for stabilizing public debt ratios and enhancing the efficiency of public expenditure, while addressing inflationary pressures and promoting sustainable, environmentally conscious growth. Structured in nine parts and comprising 36 chapters with 75 contributors-including many of the field's most prominent scholars and practitioners-this comprehensive handbook examines public debt dynamics both within and beyond the framework of fiscal dominance. It will be an indispensable resource for academics, researchers, and students in public finance, as well as central bankers and policymakers engaged in shaping the future of fiscal and monetary governance.

Dutmer introduces the term 'proto-transformational' to categorize Cicero's leadership theory, addressing the ancient biases present in his idealized leadership portraits. The book outlines how Cicero's ideal leaders are both ethical and effective: they act as authentic transformational leaders, selflessly serving the common good while demonstrating virtuous integrity in their words and actions. Dutmer also highlights how Cicero's model, which centers on the practice of the Cardinal Virtues, aligns with current character-focused leadership development frameworks. Chapters address the emerging developments in two crucial movements in modern leadership studies: transformational leadership and Leadership for Flourishing.

This book is an essential read for scholars and students of leadership theory, ethics, political science and political philosophy. By establishing Cicero as a significant leadership thinker, it will also appeal to those interested in applying such concepts to debates and areas of practical importance within law, religion and constitutions.

Expert contributors argue that the future of digital social science lies in the synergistic integration of social science methodologies and technical expertise, oriented toward ethical outcomes. The Handbook introduces the theoretical concept of the Digital Social Science Pentagon, a new typology that acts as the structural anchor by outlining five key nodes of study: transitions, branches, interdisciplinarity, applications, and ethical futures. Key topics covered include issues of governance, policy experiences, child development, and digital inequality and oppression. The Handbook ultimately underscores the urgent need for collaborative, cross-disciplinary knowledge to address complex societal challenges and shape responsible and ethical digital futures.

The Handbook of Digital Social Science is an essential read for scholars and students of various intersections of digital studies including ethics, engineering, business, entrepreneurship, criminology, public policy, public health, law, and sociology. It also provides valuable insights for digital social scientists, theorists, and methodologists interested in collaborative knowledge, interdisciplinary dialogue, and technical expertise.

This volume introduces Alikayi, an Iranian language spoken on the southern fringe of the Alborz Mountains south of the Caspian Sea. The book offers a fresh perspective on Caspian linguistics. Highlighting the language's most significant features-such as its unique possession marker, pronominal clitics in nominal morphosyntax, and an innovative verbal system marked by drift toward periphrastic constructions-the book situates Alikayi within the wider Caspian-language continuum through typological and lexical comparisons. It also explores sociocultural, ecological, and historical dimensions of the Alikayi tribe, providing insights into patterns of contact, migration, and identity. Texts included at the end of the volume enrich the sociolinguistic portrait and illuminate broader issues in Iranic philology, including tribal formation in medieval Persia. This concise but multifaceted study will appeal to scholars of Iranian linguistics and to researchers engaged in comparative and typological work.

This book explores how regions can thrive beyond traditional agglomeration economies by leveraging the concept of "borrowed size" - the ability of smaller or peripheral areas to benefit from proximity to large urban centers without hosting large-scale economic activity themselves. Focusing exclusively on Japanese prefectures, the book provides comprehensive empirical analyses of how spatial interdependencies shape regional productivity, efficiency, and innovation performance.

It is the first study to systematically examine the effects of borrowed size on total factor productivity convergence, productive efficiency, and regional innovation using official regional statistics, including patent indicators and other publicly available data. The book also introduces the concept of the "shadow of agglomeration," highlighting potential negative externalities associated with urban concentration.

Challenging the classical understanding of agglomeration, this volume contributes a new theoretical and empirical framework for understanding regional resilience in the post-growth era. It provides robust evidence and analytical tools that will be valuable to scholars, regional planners, and policymakers seeking sustainable strategies for innovation-led regional development.