This handbook presents a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of phonetic and phonological research on Iranian languages and dialects. Iranian languages - spoken by tens of millions across a wide geographical area extending from the Middle East to Central and South Asia, and diaspora communities - exhibit considerable variation in phonetic detail and phonological structure. Bringing together leading scholars from around the world, this handbook provides original empirical findings, theoretical insights, and experimental results that explore various aspects of sound systems of Iranian languages and dialects. Until now, much of the scholarly work on Iranian languages has focused on historical and comparative linguistics of Persian, or the pedagogical aspects of mainly Persian. This handbook takes as its central focus the systematic study of phonological processes and sound systems across a wide range of Iranian languages in order to highlight the unexplored phonetic and phonological details of contemporary Iranian languages. The book fills that critical gap, offering a thematic and typologically informed approach. The handbook also responds to a growing demand for interdisciplinary work. Contributions bridge traditional phonological theory with applied domains such as first / second language acquisition, speech therapy, and poetic meter. It serves multiple audiences that include theoretical linguists, speech clinicians, language educators, and typologists interested in the sound systems of Iranian languages and dialects. In doing so, this book stimulates future research, promotes cross-linguistic comparison, and fosters greater attention to the sound systems of Iranian languages in academic, clinical, and educational settings.

This textbook offers a clear and accessible introduction to the core principles of microeconomics. Designed for students new to the subject, it covers all the essential topics found in a standard microeconomics course-including consumer theory, producer theory, market structures, imperfect competition, and game theory.

What sets this book apart is its innovative use of illustrations and storytelling. These elements complement the formal analysis, bringing abstract concepts to life and making the material more engaging and easier to understand. The text combines straightforward language, mathematical tools, and visual aids to support a deeper and more intuitive grasp of economic theory.

A companion Workbook, featuring a wide range of exercises and fully worked solutions, is available for separate purchase.

This edited open access volume offers a comprehensive analysis of new and traditional funding models for the arts and culture. In the economic and political contexts of reduced art funding, the book takes an objective, pragmatic and heterodox approach to demonstrate how financial sustainability in the arts can be achieved via a range of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms which are valued either in terms of institutional or crowd-based legitimacy.

The book aims to offer both a scholarly interpretation of established and emerging funding and financing practices within the cultural and creative sector, as well as guidance for artists, creators, and cultural programmers through various case studies and multiple examples of current practices. Contributions are divided into three sections. Section one outlines the most important traditional tools and models, while the second part covers the key contemporary practices premised on the use of digital platforms, and the final part introduces several case studies. The objective of this volume is to demonstrate that while traditional models show no signs of being supplanted, digitalisation has facilitated the emergence of new forms. Such an evolution has consequences for creators of works as well as those willing to support them. The contributions address these issues by investigating and analysing the individual or combined adoption of traditional and new funding and financing models in a post-digital context.

The past decade has seen an explosion of growth in digitalization, financial technology and mobile payments in emerging markets. The rise of global alternate financial systems has spurred central banks into action, fast-tracking solutions like Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) from the concept to pilot stage in several countries.

The rise in interest in CBDCs has been rapid and widespread - per the Atlantic Council's CBDC tracker, more than 95% of the global economy is considering the introduction of CBDC in some form. Although most of the world is interested in CBDCs, emerging markets have raced ahead in the implementation, pilots and launch of different models.

This book covers the emergence of digital payments, cryptocurrencies, and CBDCs. As emerging markets continue to experiment with these futuristic digital financial instruments systems, this book offers case studies across a range of countries and explores their unique economic and social context.

It provides an updated overview on the initiatives and their positive and negative consequences globally. Common arguments against CBDCs include concerns related to privacy and concentrating autonomy in central banks. In the US, arguments against CBDCs also highlight that if cash becomes obsolete, there is more government control and less privacy on our spending and financial transactions.

Lastly, this book explores the potential disruption in the global financial order unleashed by instruments like wholesale and retail CBDCs, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, cross-border payment instruments, and digital payment systems. It engages in discussion relating to an ongoing policy war regarding financial payments and digital currencies and the possible dilution of the strength of physical currency.

This book addresses the connections between food provisioning, natural resource extraction and the exploitation of human labor. Through a series of case studies, it tackles agricultural extractivist regimes in the Mediterranean, focusing on the socio-ecological and ideological practices that constrain or contribute to conflicting processes of social reproduction.
The book is divided into two parts investigating the two faces of agricultural production and opening the field of their inter-connections: (1) labor, nature and capital in food production, and (2) agricultural projects for a sustainable future. The contributed chapters provide insights into how valuation processes of human and non-human resources are entangled with economic valorization and capital accumulation. Bringing together studies based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, Agricultural Extractivism in the Mediterranean Region bridges macro-level analyses and micro-level perspectives by tracing how structural constraints express themselves in concrete social relations. The reliance on detailed case studies facilitates the introduction of advanced topics in an accessible and engaging format. This book will be of interest to scholars in economic and environmental anthropology, agrarian studies and the anthropology of work, as well as sociologists and human geographers working in related areas.

The central theme of the book is the exploration and implementation of circular economy principles to transform urban waste management practices. The book focuses on how cities can move from a linear waste management model to a circular system that emphasises resource efficiency, waste reduction and sustainability. Covering innovative strategies, technologies and policies that support the integration of circular economy concepts into urban environments, the book aims to provide practical solutions and forward-looking approaches to creating a more resilient and environmentally sustainable urban future.

This book analyzes the relation between the Churches' official teachings regarding 'desired' and forbidden forms of sexual behaviour on the one hand, and mundane practice on the other hand, focusing on perspectives 'from below'. Since the very beginning, Christianity has sought to regulate the love lives of its believers. The clergy's growing influence on state institutions and the introduction of Christian sexual ethics left its mark on law, education and social norms. However, the everyday lives of most believers had little in common with the sexual norms propagated by clerics. The territory of Poland is especially interesting due to the fact that over the centuries different Christian confessions as well as distinct ethnic groups with various cultural norms co-existed there. Additionally, this edited collection looks at different groups of actors, such as peasants, the clergy or townspeople from the Early Middle Ages until the late twentieth century, and also includes different types of sources as well as of methodological approaches. This long-term perspective shows the impact and influence of Church teachings in a longue duree, and highlights social factors that both shaped discourses on sexuality and also indicated the changing power of the Church.

This book offers theologians, philosophers, and neuroscientists accessible and engaging material for navigating the complex field of the neuroscience of religion. It addresses the challenge of how scholars in the humanities can meaningfully engage with research and data from the hard sciences, demonstrating how neuroscience both influences and is influenced by philosophical and theological inquiry. With contributions from experts in neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, theology, and philosophy, this collection provides a valuable starting point for exploring how empirical research can inform and enrich the study of religious experience and belief. Essential reading for scholars of religious studies, philosophy, theology, and neuroscience-especially those eager to broaden their horizons of investigation.

This book offers innovative and integrative psychological theorizing on the meaning of parasocial relationships, drawing on cutting-edge empirical insights and clinical observations.

Uniquely, the book explores various digital spheres, ranging from online dating and social media to subscription platforms like OnlyFans and AI-driven chatbots, including ChatGPT, AI-companions, and therapy bots. It highlights their specific characteristics, overarching similarities, dynamic entanglements, potentials, and risks, and finally, their meaning for the social self. Through this lens, the book examines how individuals initiate and sustain relationships, how intimacy and sexuality are experienced online, and how these digital practices materialize in everyday life, impacting meaning-making and broader societal organizing.

Finally, the book offers conceptual ideas on media and AI literacy, as well as psychological implications, relevant to social work and education, counselling and psychotherapeutic contexts, policymakers, and everyone involved online.

Solidly grounded in theory and empirical evidence, this book presents a novel methodological framework for fostering Communities of Dialogic Inquiry in primary education called Learning Together. These communities create collaborative networks of distributed cognition among school, university, and local community members to equip "apprentices" with a firm scientific foundation, complemented by a robust humanistic citizenship culture, enabling their participation in socioscientific practices in an informed, critical, responsible and inclusive fashion. Learning Together provides concrete, articulated, and richly illustrated teaching-learning strategies for cultivating these communities in diverse school and community settings.

"In this book, the authors make a distinctive, strong and important contribution to our understanding of how education can be made most productive. They draw on a wealth of schools-based research, including their own, to link what is known about the ways humans learn and what can and should happen in classrooms. It should help to promote a more accurate conception of education as a social, cultural, communicative activity, rather than a process whereby teachers simply transmit knowledge to students. I hope it is read by teachers, researchers and others involved in education everywhere". - Neil Mercer, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Cambridge, UK

"For the authors of this fascinating and timely volume, communities of dialogic inquiry have two main aims: fostering skills that support a key human activity (learning for dialogue) and applying those skills in knowledge acquisition (learning through dialogue). The authors ground those aims in a novel yet convincing interpretation of sociocultural theory: the insightful and wide-ranging literature review that underpins their approach will be appreciated by researchers and practitioners alike. At the same time, the volume goes far beyond theory: it concludes with case studies, which indicate in detail how dialogic inquiry can be embedded in classrooms". - Christine Howe, Emeritus Professor, University of Cambridge, UK

This book provides a timely and thorough examination of religious minorities in Europe, paying particular attention to the diversity within Christianity. Drawing on perspectives from Eastern, Central and Western Europe, with a focus on Germany, it examines the complex dynamics of religious life in minority contexts, offering essential insights into the role of faith communities in post-migrant societies. It investigates how sociological conditions shape religious practices and identities, how migration fosters adaptation and renewal, and the contributions of minority communities to multicultural and plural societies. Featuring contributions from leading scholars of theology, sociology and Islamic studies, this multidisciplinary book provides an in-depth analysis of the evolving landscape of religion in contemporary Europe. It therefore highlights the importance of ecumenical dialogue and interreligious encounters in an increasingly diverse society. This vital resource sheds light on the often overlooked role of religious minorities in shaping the cultural and religious future of Europe, and is essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners.

This book acquaints readers with the principles and the possibilities of using visual models in the education of young children. Educational projects that use visual models as effective psychological tools that allow the child to develop abilities are very limited. Visual models can be used as a means for cognitive development, regulation of behavior, organization of productive activities, and for solving creative problems. The research in the field of cognitive development of preschoolers was greatly influenced by the works of L.S. Vygotsky, J. Piaget, and their followers. L.S. Vygotsky understood the general line of the development of children's consciousness as the transition from social plane to psychological one and related it to the mastering of cultural means, such as visual models. L. A. Venger considered a child's drawing as a visual model of an object; in construction activity, the child creates models of real structures from various blocks. All this served as the necessary basis for the use of visual models in the organization of educational processes in preschool institutions. Visual models can contribute to the enrichment of play activity and the development of thinking, visual-spatial activity, as well as the development of imagination. Studies have also identified the benefits of using visual models in work with children with special needs.

This book provides a great resource for students, specialists, practitioners and researchers.

Is the Renaissance an outdated "Eurocentric" concept or the West’s success story? Did it only comprise male elites? Did it lend legitimacy and a facade of respectability to the world’s subordination by European colonial powers? This book intends to take these objections seriously, searching for renaissances outside of Europe and the reception of the Italian Renaissance in its global dimensions.

The Electorate of Trier had five archbishops. As a result of the confessional dualism that began in 1521, their influence as electors in the imperial diets grew. From 1521 to 1540, they, along with the secular and ecclesiastical Imperial Estates, sought a feasible religious compromise. It was only the last elector who attempted to adapt his archdioceses to the ideas of reform propagated by the curia and the nascent Council of Trent.

The gulag report by Jewish Polish union lawyer Jerzy Gliksman covering the years 1939?1941 is one of the most significant pieces of Jewish testimony from the Soviet labor camp system. This document of Soviet terror is now being published for the first time in German, accompanied by two introductory texts providing context. In 1949, Gliksman testified at the UN and became a professor at Harvard as an expert on the USSR.