This book explores whether the World Bank Group, despite not being formally bound by international human rights law, operates in accordance with it when financing investment projects involving indigenous peoples, who are often among the most impacted.

The inquiry proceeds along two principal strands, grounded in the distinction between operations targeting public and private sector recipients. First, it traces the evolution of the World Bank Group's policies on indigenous peoples, which are binding on its staff and, once incorporated into loan agreements, on financing recipients as well. Second, it examines the interpretative practice of the organization's Independent Accountability Mechanisms, which review compliance with these policies throughout the project cycle. It finds that the policies have evolved alongside key developments in international law and that the Independent Accountability Mechanisms consistently reference both hard and soft international legal instruments in their assessments.

Building on these findings, the book reconsiders whether the World Bank Group may, in fact, be subject to international human rights obligations. Departing from traditional deductive reasoning, it adopts an inductive approach grounded in institutional practice. It argues that the World Bank Group, as an international legal actor, is bound by an emerging body of rules and principles of general international law and calls for a reassessment of the organization's role in shaping the human rights discourse on indigenous peoples.

The legal profession is at a pivotal moment.

Rapid technological advances, rising competition from unexpected directions, shifting client demands, and changing expectations from top talent are reshaping the legal profession right before our eyes. To stay ahead and thrive, law firm leaders must build future-ready firms-organizations that proactively lead transformation and respond to disruption with agility.

This book is a practical, research-backed guide to unlocking peak performance and driving transformation across the entire firm by focusing on the most overlooked success factor: the people who shape and drive the firm's future. Leaders who successfully empower people to adapt to and actively drive transformation will shape the future of the legal profession.

Drawing on over 20 years of experience advising top law firm leaders, 35 in-depth interviews with managing partners, COOs, CHROs, and other senior leaders, and three decades of research in behavioral, human, and business sciences, Prof. Dr. Madeleine Bernhardt, LL.M., introduces a structured, science-based framework covering nine critical areas leaders must address to achieve successful transformation.

Together, these areas enable the development of a strong and adaptive law firm culture-the key to leading transformation effectively and future-proofing the firm.

This book helps leaders in the legal profession to:

• lead transformation at three levels-firm, team, and individual
• unlock human potential for performance, empowering individuals and teams to unlearn old habits, embrace new ways of working, and drive transformation
• build a strong and adaptive culture across the firm-essential to any strategic transformation
• future-proof their firms, enabling them to thrive in a time of high complexity and dynamic change.

Whether managing partner, COO, CHRO, or senior leader, readers will find in this book the proven concepts and methods needed to lead with impact in times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA)-and to build future-ready firms that actively shape and adapt to a fast-paced environment.

Today more than ever, a firm's success depends on its leaders' ability to skillfully lead people, teams, and the entire organization through transformation-to win the future.

Our current era is characterised by multiple challenges, including climate change, global health challenges, economic inequality, political instability, and technological upheavals. With these crises intersecting and compounding, the modern business environment has become a landscape of volatility and moral complexity. Organizations can no longer remain passive in the face of these mounting challenges and are called upon to embrace human-centred, ethically-driven practices that acknowledge the profound interconnectedness of their actions with society and the planet. This edited volume explores how organizations and leaders can respond to the unprecedented complexities and crises of the 21st century with ethical integrity, adaptive governance, and proactive leadership.

The book integrates a multidisciplinary array of conceptual, qualitative and quantitative scholarly efforts. It includes studies of green HRM, sustainable career development, adaptive teleworking models, and AI-driven social accounting, underscoring the diverse ways in which organizations are navigating polycrisis with humanistic values and technological foresight. Together, these chapters advocate for a shift in mindset-from viewing crises as insurmountable barriers to recognizing them as catalysts for ethical growth and organizational evolution. This book is an essential resource for scholars and students of business ethics, sustainability strategy and organizational response to 'grand challenges'. It will also be of interest to business leaders and policymakers seeking to navigate the complexities of polycrisis with ethical innovation, responsibility, and a commitment to building resilient, human-centered organizations.

Starting from the hypothesis that all human forms of life have a political dimension - be it clearly expressed or hidden, conscious or unconscious - this volume examines the ways in which political life can be fruitfully analyzed with the help of phenomenological methodologies. Examining issues of power dynamics as they relate to pervasive epistemic and axiological commitments as well as deeply seated socio-cultural and institutional practices, this text opens and develops, through a radical critical lens and a commitment to the emancipatory potential of theoretical work, innovative paths for phenomenological investigations of the complex political aspects of our shared lived experiences. These investigations, both focused on the content matter at hand and on their own methodology, draw on phenomenological resources as well as resources from other philosophical traditions and fields, such as critical theory, feminist philosophy, and queer theory.

While various theories in political philosophy nurture an open suspicion about subject-oriented philosophical approaches (c.f., Adorno, Althusser, for example), this volume questions the status of the subject of political experience in order to explore multiple forms of political subjectivation. These guiding questions allow an investigation into a new field of research where phenomenological methodologies can help negotiate the political challenges of our time. This book appeals to students and researchers working in phenomenology and related disciplines.

First providing a new and thought-provoking interpretation of the Spinoza Controversy of around 1800, and the Controversy's reprise in the 1920s, this work then makes a compelling case for the Controversy's ongoing vital relevance. If the Spinoza Controversy has historically been one of the few times our mainstream discourse has adequately identified and opposed the fatal early German romantic flaw which still lies at the heart of Western scientific naturalism - the unfounded belief that necessity relations are really, and not ideally, ontological - then the Controversy's lens is invaluable now, in an era characterized by our still deeply underestimated and mischaracterized environmental nihilism, a multifaceted condition in line with which we cognitively and philosophically nullify the actual external world while also increasingly physically rendering it nothing by removing, dismantling, and consuming it. In linking this nihilism with a romantic understanding of necessity over two centuries old, Snow shows how not only our environmental nihilism, but also our increasing belief in worlds even less real than Spinozistic naturalism's - such as the worlds ostensibly brought into being only through economic or, now, sheerly informatic, types of necessity - calls out for opening up, for a third and final time, the questions the Controversy affords us unique ways of asking regarding the purpose, the limits, and perhaps even the future, of Western theoretical rationality itself.

The book "Mastering Problem-Based Learning: Principles, Procedures, and Best Practices" is a collective and collaborative work by ten PBL experts who possess an insightful understanding of PBL, extensive experience, and a successful track record, particularly in medical and health education. This book provides practical wisdom and helpful tips, aimed at guiding educators and administrators in medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing schools, or allied health institutions to:

1.Design and implement a PBL curriculum with vision, strategy, and appropriate use of resources.

2.Construct PBL cases and facilitator guides aligned with educational goals and learning outcomes.

3.Transform and develop teachers from being instructors to becoming facilitators.

4.Advise students through PBL to overcome challenges and avoid pitfalls.

5.Facilitate a PBL session to promote active learning.

6.Create and manage PBL examinations.

7.Generate meaningful feedback for both PBL facilitators and learners for continuous improvement.

8.Migrate PBL from traditional physical classrooms to online environments.

9.Adopt AI in the practice of PBL.

10.Overcome challenges and avoid pitfalls in PBL implementation.

This volume examines the state of the economic history discipline around the globe. It raises and answers questions such as: What are its roots, how did it evolve, and what is the current state of the discipline in each country or region presented?

Transcending traditional Western paradigms, the book gathers renowned economic historians from around the globe to engage in a comprehensive dialogue about economic history's global standing. Investigating its role in shaping future economists, addressing pivotal questions, and its symbiotic relationship with economics, contributors analyze economic history's resonance across continents. By doing so, the chapters are not intended to be a survey of the research on each country, but rather an overview of the discipline: its practice, training, and position within the broader economics discipline.

Addressing an academic audience, this book further analyzes the interplay of human capital scarcity and its profound impact on academia, spotlighting the evolution of economic history in diverse cultural and regional contexts. Scrutinizing historical milestones, such as Schumpeter's paradigm-shifting pillars and Romer's reflections, the book discusses the need to redefine economic history's role and takes readers on a journey through economic history from its pivotal role to its integration into the broader discipline.

A historical inquiry into Kantian philosophy as a form of philosophical religion

Kantian philosophy is typically viewed as providing a universal theory of knowledge and morality based on timeless principles retrieved from the human mind. In The Kantian Religion, Ian Hunter offers a starkly different account. Hunter contends that Kant's arguments were assembled from purely historical sources and served as ascetic devices for crafting the towering self of the Kantian philosopher; they were exercises in intellectual self-clarification and moral transformation undertaken by a cohort of the philosophically educated in search of spiritual clarity and moral purity. These "solemn rites of the mind" were seen as heir and rival to the regenerative resources and cultural importance of the Christian religion, and Kantianism was characterized as a philosophical religion.

Hunter describes the ways that elite spiritual athletes performed a series of philosophically strenuous "acts of the self on the self" through Kant's intellectual exercises. When Kantianism emerged as an insurgent cultural movement in the 1780s, it offered young academics training to be clergy and teachers a philosophy that was powerful enough to supplant Christian spirituality and to subordinate humanist scholarship and the natural sciences to philosophical self-reflection. For Kant and his followers, the religious disposition of Kantian philosophy came solely from the immanent practice of the philosophy itself. As a rival to conventional religion and as an academic interloper, Kantian philosophy unleashed a wave of conflicts in Germany's ecclesiastical and scholarly cultures. Although recent Kant commentary typically views Kantianism as intrinsically secular and scientific, Hunter argues provocatively that Kant's contemporaries viewed his philosophy as an extra-ecclesiastical path to spiritual refinement and moral regeneration.

This book explores the 'gender pain gap'-the systemic disparities in how women's chronic pain and illness are perceived, believed, and treated. Focusing especially on conditions without visible markers, Eilidh Galbraith examines why women's pain remains socially, culturally, and theologically problematic. Through interdisciplinary analysis and qualitative storytelling, she investigates how power dynamics shape medical responses and influence women's credibility as narrators of their own suffering. Drawing on feminist theology, trauma studies, and health research, Galbraith weaves together her own experiences with those of other women to reveal how silence and disbelief impact health outcomes and identity. This deeply personal study challenges dominant narratives and calls for a more compassionate, justice-oriented approach to women's pain.

This book discusses the impact of international migrants and refugees in the Middle East in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on 3 main questions: What has the role of international migrants been in coping with Covid-19? How has this international health crisis affected international migrants and refugees? How has it affected socio-economic and political structures? The authors assess the relationship between healthcare, international migration and the pandemic through specific case-studies including: Tuerkiye, with reference to the case of Uzbek and Georgian migrant women, Tuerkiye with reference to Turkish citizens' attitudes towards Syrian refugees, Palestinian camps in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and students' and immigrant professors' ethnographic experiences, the Arab Gulf countries and the Pakistan Medical Centre in Dubai, Arabia and the case-study of Oman, and Iran. The argument seeks to move beyond the idea of migrants as victims of the pandemic, and sheds light on the active role and agency of migrants to underline their substantive contribution to coping with the health crisis.

The open access book invites readers to critically address the new model of a Sustainable Circular Economy also from the legal point of view, tracing new perspectives in order to fairly orient the law in this systemic paradigm transition.

The paradigm shift towards a Sustainable Circular Economy is at the core of the EU policy agenda, aiming at revolutionizing the whole economic productive model that characterizes our contemporary society. However, the legal dimension is often underestimated in this framework. Actually, the legal system cannot resort to old schemes if it wants to respond properly to new challenges. In order to achieve effectively the indicated objectives of social progress, it is decisive that also the legal dimension of a Sustainable Circular Economy, and so the regulation of the market and the society on which it impacts, is designed consistently with an innovative approach. That is why this research intends to promote a general reconceptualization of existing legal configurations, exploring new perspectives to strengthen the role of individuals in the socio-economic system, as aware 'human' beings that, as such, take care of the world they live in.

This open access book aims to present an overview of the governance and management of medial data sharing and application based on China's evidence and experience. The basic knowledge and guidelines of medical data sharing in China and international consensus are introduced, including the identifications of medical data and its sharing, the mechanism of data sharing, medical ethics and data ethics, institutional management, privacy policy, etc. The challenges to law and governance from medical big data and AI in medicine are discussed, which are the key trends in both public and individual health. This book builds an academic system for governance and management of medical data sharing and application, as well as a practical guidance. It would be insightful for researchers and practitioners in medical institutions.

Against the background of great expectations associated with the application of big data and artificial intelligence in medicine, various voices have claimed that individuals have a moral obligation to make their data and tissue available for research. This obligation is not only associated with the amounts of materials required in contemporary medical science, but also with presumptions that the knowledge produced in science is a public good. This book critically examines this claim by drawing on four case studies of medical data and tissue collections: the Framingham Heart Study in the United States; the Singapore Tissue Network; the Million Death Study in India; and the European network of sample and data collections BBMRI-ERIC. Each case study is presented as an exemplar for how infrastructures for the purpose of collecting, storing and using population data for medical research are constructed and frame particular versions of 'collective goods' in contemporary medical research. While each of these cases is situated in different geographic locations and largely distinct areas of medical research, they jointly illustrate how the making and operations of medical research collections produce particular 'collectives' and 'goods'. This book discusses the making of such collective goods in terms of citizenship to interrogate how the framing of medical research collections generates forms of knowledge that already attribute certain (health-related) rights and responsibilities to different groups of people.

The original version of this book is a bilingual book for international students and overseas readers, which is included in the "Introduction to China's S&T Innovation", a project funded by the Hubei Provincial Special Fund for Public Welfare Academic Publishing in 2024.

This book adopts a thematic approach to comprehensively introduce the development and remarkable achievements of China's health system. It provides an in-depth analysis of China's practices and outcomes in key areas such as health work guidelines, health management, health resource planning, health financing, and total health expenditure. The book summarizes the evolution of China's health policies and showcases the nation's valuable experiences in health development to a global audience. With rich content, a well-structured framework, concise language, and accessible explanations, this book serves as an insightful resource for readers worldwide.

This book explores the intricate connections between socioeconomic factors, consumer health, and broader well-being, offering a multidisciplinary perspective on how various determinants shape individual and community health outcomes. By addressing key issues such as mental health in workplace environments, adolescent health education, consumer behaviour in food choices, and the well-being of older adults, the book highlights the pressing need for holistic health interventions. The chapters provide a diverse range of research-based insights, employing quantitative and qualitative methodologies to advance the discourse on public health and wellness.

The book is structured into five key sections, each focusing on a critical aspect of health and wellness. Each section reflects a unique lens, ranging from gender and mental health to cultural wellness practices and elderly care, capturing both the diversity of lived experiences and the systemic factors that shape well-being.

In "Bridging Gaps in Adolescent Health and Hygiene Education," we explore community-based interventions among tribal adolescents in Purulia, West Bengal. "Empowering Women through Workplace Wellness" highlights innovative strategies from Bangladesh aimed at promoting gender-inclusive health environments. The chapter on urban mental health delves into gendered patterns of psychological well-being within rapidly changing cityscapes. In contrast, "Dancing Away Stress" offers a creative and holistic approach to emotional regulation through expressive movement. Lastly, "I Am Alone but Not Lonely" investigates how living arrangements among older Indian adults influence their sense of autonomy and quality of life. Together, these chapters foreground a critical message: that health and well-being are deeply social phenomena: shaped by culture, context, opportunity, and inequality.

In aligning with the Vision Viksit Bharat agenda, this volume emphasizes that achieving holistic national development requires a sustained focus on social inclusion, gender equity, and mental and physical wellness across all stages of life. It is intended for academics, policymakers, health professionals, and anyone interested in understanding the broader socioeconomic dimensions of well-being. Through empirical research and case studies, it advocates for policies and practices that promote equitable health outcomes for all.

This book, drawing heavily on archival and oral sources, many of which have not been accessible before, discusses major Chinese-funded projects in Tanzania’s health sector. It explores the contexts that gave birth to China’s medical assistance in Tanzania and analyses how the funded projects contributed to the nation-building agenda and promoted South-South medical knowledge production, exchanges, and self-sufficiency within the country. By examining entanglements in bilateral relationships among countries of the Global South, the book contributes to research on South-South cooperation.

A comprehensive scholarly edition of the writings and correspondence of Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine: Collected Writings is the first major new edition of Paine's works, bringing together all his writings in six breathtaking volumes that dramatically revise our previous understanding of his activities as a writer and his importance as a democratic theorist in the age of revolutions. It includes about 180 new letters and some two hundred works newly attributed to Paine, with twenty-nine works previously regarded as Paine's being deattributed. Drawing on pioneering computerized text analysis that makes possible for the first time attributions of anonymous and pseudonymous texts, this collection includes in volumes 5-6 newly identified pamphlets and newspaper and journal contributions, and suggests that Paine was extremely active as a Grub Street oppositional Whig writer in the decade prior to the American Revolution. Many writings from the period of his residence in France (1792-1802) and his subsequent return to the United States are also restored to his published output. Paine emerges as a much more consistent and serious democratic theorist than is often assumed, whose contributions to revolutionary debates in America, Britain, and France were unparalleled in their time.

The supplementary writings presented in this volume span the years 1772 to 1808, a time of political maturation for Paine as he engaged with a host of issues and causes in America, Britain, and France. Often written anonymously or under known or new aliases, these pieces suggest a very different narrative of his activities and development during this period. Commentary by the editors provides invaluable historical context.

This book highlights the role of traditional media in shaping public perceptions of gender-based violence and how digital media has revolutionised health communication. It also discusses the potential of indigenous communication tools, such as folktales and oral traditions, to prevent gender-based violence in marginalised communities. The book highlights the need for partnerships between organisations, healthcare providers, and community leaders to enhance resource sharing and adapt to evolving community needs, and underscores how continuous monitoring and evaluation of these programmes are crucial for a successful fight against gender-based violence. The book argues that evidence-based recommendations for improving health communication efforts and increasing awareness can help create a more secure and equitable society.

This book offers multidisciplinary perspective on the dynamic process of aging proposing strategies for developing more functional ageing societies. Gathering revised and expanded papers presented at the 3rd Congress of the Interdisciplinary Research Unit "On Building Functional Ageing Communities" , organized by the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco, this book addresses the multidimensional aspects of sustainability in aging, exploring the environmental, health, social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions. Each chapter presents new perspectives that should help to understand the phenomenon of population aging in the context of sustainability and contribute to the promotion of Active and Healthy Aging that is also Sustainable. This book is aimed at a wide range of professionals concerned with aging and sustainability and the and the development of more sustainable and functional societies.

This book focuses on the conflicts between Chinese medicine and western medicine in modern Chinese society. It is trying to represent how Chinese medicine used its knowledge of exogenous febrile diseases while practicing western medicine, gradually establishing a set of TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) infectious disease studies, and carving a space to function in daily life. Initially influenced by modern medicine, many of TCM clinical techniques were marginalized. In addition, limited national investment hindered the application of TCM theory and skills. It is the author's hope that the study of medical history would improve the knowledge of the TMC system among traditional Chinese medical scholars and inspire researchers to acknowledge the value of a TCM culture, which had been demonized for a hundred years, providing another possibility for practical treatment and recuperation.

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of innovative mutual aid elderly care models in rural China, encompassing community-driven, government-supported, and market-participated approaches. Drawing on rich case studies, it analyzes strategies that address the pressing challenges of an aging rural population, with a distinctive Chinese perspective on care provision. This book highlights pathways for effective resource integration, active community engagement, and long-term sustainability. Aimed at policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, it delivers actionable insights and novel solutions to the global challenge of population aging. By deepening understanding of China's rural elderly care systems, this book provides valuable lessons with broad relevance for aging societies worldwide.

This book reveals how the formation of the Chinese socialist system in the 1950s dramatically transformed the nation's economy, and charts how the newly established economic system functioned during the planned economy period (1949-1978), through focusing on Shanghai, which had served as the center of China's modern economy since the latter half of the nineteenth century. Drawing on the rich historical primary sources of the Shanghai Municipal Archives, this study examines the impact of the institutional change wrought by the introduction of the socialist system on Shanghai's economy, through a careful comparison with the economic structure before 1949. Moreover, it also explores the distinctive features of the Chinese socialist system, first and foremost the relationship between local governments and local businesses that came about through the socialist transformation of private enterprise, by analyzing Shanghai's fiscal structure and a series of key industries, including the textile, machinery, rubber processing, cement, and power industries. This historical study proffers a new understanding of the long-term economic history of modern China across the pivotal 1949 and 1978 divides and sheds light on the origin of what has come to be known as "socialism with Chinese characteristics" today.

This book offers a vivid and accessible narrative of the evolution of financial markets from the first millennium to 2025. Through compelling historical accounts and engaging storytelling, it brings to life the complex transformations that have shaped global finance.

While Western financial centers such as Antwerp, Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Wall Street are thoroughly explored, the book also highlights the often-overlooked contributions of the East-including Islamic finance, ancient trade routes, and the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

Grounded in the institutional framework of Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson-who argue that inclusive institutions are key to long-term development-and informed by Andrew Lo's Adaptive Markets Hypothesis, the book examines how financial systems have responded to shifting political, cultural, and economic forces.

Far more than a chronological history of stock exchanges, this is a global narrative of how institutions, adaptation, and the power of storytelling have shaped the financial world across centuries.

Drawing upon a unique cliometric approach, this book offers a comprehensive examination of major conflicts and their consequences. War and imperialism have shaped the modern world in profound ways, leaving an indelible mark on nations and peoples. In this book, acclaimed historian Roger L. Ransom takes readers on an engaging and insightful journey through the pivotal conflicts and power struggles that defined the era from the beginning of the twentieth century until today. From the early days of imperialism to the recent events in Russia and Ukraine, the author delves into the unanswered questions surrounding imperialism and war, shedding new light on historical debates.

Explore the rise of imperialist powers such as the USA and Germany, delve into the Russo-Japanese War and the Third Reich's thrust towards Moscow, and analyze pivotal moments like the Pearl Harbor attack and the use of the atomic bomb. With rigorous research and accessible prose, this book provides a compelling narrative that appeals to both scholars and general readers. This book is an invaluable resource for students, history enthusiasts, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of war and imperialism in the modern era.

This book explores the evolution of the Soviet space sector during the period of perestroika, presenting it as a revealing mirror of the broader political, economic, and social transformations that reshaped the late Soviet Union. It examines the dynamics behind the attempted transition from an authoritarian regime with a centralised economy to a democratic system and market-based economy, analysing the consequences of these profound shifts for the fabric of Soviet society. As the expansion of international scientific cooperation and the commercialisation of space infrastructure became central to changes in the field of cosmonautics, the book delves into the challenges of forging Soviet-European partnerships amid Cold War bloc divisions. It also traces the USSR's initial steps into the emerging global market for space goods and services. At a time when space plays an increasingly vital role in our societies, economies, and foreign policy, this book is essential reading for scholars of international relations, history, and space studies. It makes a timely contribution to ongoing debates on science diplomacy and its influence on international relations and global geopolitics.

This book present Sade's core metaphysical commitments as a coherent and logical system. It analyses his central ontological principle of entropy and shows that Sade endorsed neither egoism nor materialism but was a forerunner to 19th Century thermodynamics. It then turns to his philosophy of money and finance, including his critique of phenomenology, his axiology, and his attack on theories of expected utility. It concludes by considering the extent to which a normative ethical theory can be salvaged from his otherwise largely deconstructive opus.

The Metaphysics of De Sade is essential reading for all scholars and researchers of early modern philosophy.