A guide for both everyday readers and policymakers on using creativity and knowledge to imagine the best, prepare for the worst and live with surprise.

Widespread pessimism and fear of the future are everywhere. With times to come often seeming threatening and uncertain, this book offers new perspectives and fresh ways of thinking. Futurologist Florence Gaub shows that everyone can influence what lies ahead--in their personal or professional life, or in society. Her ideas are for those who refuse to be paralysed by fear, instead seeing the future as a space full of possibilities.

Gaub explores how humanity's visions of tomorrow have changed throughout history; she explains what the future is, how it works, what disruptions may arise and how to fix them. She draws on insights from neuroscience, psychology and philosophy to show how humans conceive and construct the future, as individuals and as a society.

A bestseller in Germany, this smart, snappy handbook of ideas is an antidote to passive fatalism. It challenges our lack of faith in our own ability to shape what is to come, or how it will affect our lives. After all, we're the only beings who can imagine the future in such detail that we can actually create it. Gaub is a brilliant guide to rediscovering that gift.

Leading international scholars explore the meta-theoretical presuppositions of social research, along with entries spanning diverse topics including among others the role of art, artificial intelligence, digitalization and oral history. The Encyclopedia traces the evolution of historical research within the field, while highlighting contemporary digital, longitudinal, militant ethnography and other innovations. It promotes methodological pluralism and multi-method research, combining quantitative and qualitative strategies in its investigation of social phenomena and processes.

This Concise Encyclopedia is a valuable resource for scholars, students and researchers across the social sciences looking to orient themselves in this important field.

Key Features:

• Adopts flexible and interdisciplinary perspectives
• Contains 46 accessible and highly informative entries
• Engages with constructive debates about different methodological approaches
• Covers both broad and specialized topics

This timely book sets out an agenda for social science research on political trust, confronting contemporary conceptual, theoretical, and empirical problems. It grapples with the breakdown of reliance on political systems in democratic societies, exploring why many people perceive politicians and public administrators as corrupt and unconcerned about the public interest.

Expert authors present a concise overview of political trust, providing empirical and conceptual contributions with global coverage. They demonstrate how citizens' beliefs about their governments and leaders can impact the resilience, breakdown, or emergence of democracy. Chapters examine how politicians are seen as unwilling to address urgent problems ranging from global climate change to local poverty and social injustices. Authors investigate political support and institutional confidence through the lens of wavering trust and the increase of autocratic regimes. Guiding future scholarship, this book addresses important questions and indicates key avenues for research.

A Research Agenda for Political Trust is a vital resource for scholars and students of political theory and public policy, as well as sociology and the broader social sciences. Practitioners and policymakers in regulation, governance, and public administration and management will also benefit from its valuable insights.

Democracy and despotism live closer together than you'd expect-this briskly astute book reveals why that should alarm us all.

We live in troubled times, marked by a sinister trend threatening democracy everywhere: the triumph of despotism not only in countries like Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, but also in states run by popularly elected demagogues-Trump, Erdogan and Netanyahu.

Leading political thinker John Keane shows why this new despotism defies the laws of political gravity. Instead of relying exclusively on fear or force, it fosters a strange, pseudo-democratic type of government, led by rulers skilled in winning public loyalty through election-rigging, legal trickery, corruption, weaponised lying and talk of enemies. And alarmingly, the new despots hunt in packs.

But what's so good about democracy? In bold, energetic prose, Keane explains that it's much more than popular self-government based on free and fair elections. Democracy is the collective insistence that unaccountable power is always dangerous-and that democratic institutions are our best weapon against demagogues and despots.

This updated second edition presents nationalism as the most important social force shaping the ways in which people live their lives. It explains the formative influence of nationalism in the public spheres of politics and the economy, as well as the private spheres of emotional wellbeing and mental illness. In this new edition, Liah Greenfeld adds the discussion of civilization to concepts addressed in the original edition, providing an original, meaningful, logical definition of the concept, and allowing for a reliable delineation of the three civilizations coexisting in the world today: the monotheistic one, the Indic, and the Sinic. She explains how nationalism is modified by the civilizational background. Basing its conclusions on over 35 years of original comparative historical research, this book bears the characteristic Liah Greenfeld imprint: fact-based discussion, logical rigor, unexpected connections, and an exceptionally wide range of issues woven together to explain the way we live now.

Key features of the second edition include:

• preface addressing the spread of nationalism into China and India
• updated reading lists, directing students and scholars towards useful resources for further in-depth study

Rethinking Populism highlights the divisive nature of populism, exploring the economic, social, and political dynamics fueling its rise and success. It tackles key facets of the field, including questions of identity, recognition, and the disruptions associated with globalization, financialization, digitalization, and skill-biased technological change. Chapters address populism's endurance and past failures, offering diverse case studies that underscore the dynamics which engender populist mobilization. Betz illustrates how nativism, culture wars, gender, and emotions such as nostalgia and resentment are drivers of contemporary radical right-wing populism.

The book is an essential resource for students and academics in political science, political theory, economics, sociology, and cultural history. It is also of interest to policymakers and practitioners involved in international politics and public policy.

While global justice is a hot topic in political philosophy, the place of children and children as a particular group of agents has been largely ignored. This book explores global justice for children from the perspective of the capability approach.

The capability approach provides a fruitful normative foundation for exploring the issue of global justice for children. To spell this out, it is necessary to address the questions of the currency of justice, its principles, and the allocation of responsibility, and to show that all children have a moral claim to the capabilities and functionings they require for a sufficiently good life. The first chapters are devoted to the status of children in political philosophy and to methodological considerations. The next chapters then argue that developing capabilities and functionings constitute the appropriate currency of global justice. The discussion then turns to the question of the principle of global justice, advocating a sufficiency principle that recognizes different thresholds in order to secure a sufficiently good life for all children. Finally, the concluding chapters address the question of responsibility for justice. Here, the book develops a theory of differentiated responsibility, which distributes responsibilities among various agents.

Global Justice for Children will be of interest to researchers and students working in social and political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of childhood and development studies.

Contributing authors undertake a comprehensive examination of the foundational regimes outlined in the law of the sea, from traditional rules such as the freedom of navigation on the high seas, to emerging developments such as the issue of unmanned ships. Chapters cover key themes, namely the spatial and substantive limits of maritime zones, the new challenges in navigating the high seas regime, the legal regime for the seabed, emerging issues and litigating the law of the sea. Addressing 19 distinct challenges, both classic and contemporary, this Research Handbook debates whether the existing laws of the sea are still relevant and effective, or whether they require adaptation and revision.

A valuable resource for scholars and students interested in the law of the sea, this Research Handbook is of great benefit to those within the fields of international law, international relations and business dependent on the sea and its legal order. Detailing the necessary adjustments and changes in current legal regimes, this Handbook is also an essential read for government officials, counsel members, judges and arbitrators.

Providing valuable contributions from leading scholars, this timely Companion explores the role of the WHO in today's global health landscape. It offers a range of insights into the law and practice of the WHO, discussing opportunities for further development including the revision of the International Health Regulations and the recent negotiation of the Pandemic Agreement. Drawing on a variety of different legal fields, including biodiversity law, human rights law, and international institutional law, the Companion analyses the ever-growing number of outside influences on the structure and purpose of the organisation.

The Elgar Companion to the Law and Practice of the World Health Organization is a vital read for scholars and students of global health law, public international law, international relations, and global public health. It is also beneficial for practitioners and policymakers interested in current developments in global health regulations.

This Advanced Introduction provides the first concise and integrated exploration of the five core sub-fields of international economic law (IEL) (trade, investment, money, finance, and tax). Gregory Shaffer and Michael Waibel assess the contested principles, concepts, and contemporary challenges of IEL.

Key Features:

• Brings together diverse perspectives to outline potential pathways for reform
• Examines binding law as well as non-binding instruments and mechanisms with significant impacts on private cross-border economic activity
• Analyses how these five core sub-fields implicate other areas of law, such as intellectual property, competition, labour, and environmental law
• Addresses critical issues and challenges in comparative chapters on governance and dispute resolution, liberalization and market access, non-discrimination, fairness, and state regulatory autonomy

This insightful Advanced Introduction is an excellent resource for students and scholars of IEL across its sub-fields. It is also a useful guide for policymakers and lawmakers interested in shaping and implementing IEL in light of contemporary challenges amidst considerable uncertainty.

Designed both for readers new to and familiar with SAP, the Encyclopedia features 186 entries written by experts in the field. The entries are structured into six carefully curated sections, which outline the relevant theories, concepts, methods, and phenomena, discuss the relation to adjacent research approaches and map the global community infrastructure supporting SAP-related research, teaching and practice.

With its overview of SAP research and its scholarly network, this Encyclopedia serves as a valuable resource for students and researchers in business and management, organization studies, strategic management, and organizational sociology. Practitioners and professionals will also find practical insights grounded in the latest theoretical developments.

Key Features:

• Includes 186 entries written by experts in the field providing a comprehensive overview of strategy-as-practice research and its community
• Offers in-depth insights into the relevant theories, theorists and concepts, as well as the relations to adjacent research approaches such as Attention Based View, Leadership as Practice, Resource Based View and Strategic Leadership
• Explores emergent areas of research, including new SAP-related phenomena such as Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Gender, Sustainability, and Open Strategy

This book examines the relation between taxonomy and cognitive architecture in human reasoning. It offers a novel argument for voluntarism of belief that is grounded in empirical research.

The issue of cognitive architecture has pressing ramifications for philosophical discussions about the nature and ethics of belief. This book makes important contributions to taxonomic questions in cognitive science, the cognitive architecture of reasoning, and the nature of belief. On the side of taxonomy, it addresses the important question of whether Type 1/Type 2 processing are cognitive kinds and develops a novel approach to belief by treating it as a putative cognitive kind. On the architectural side, it offers an empirically motivated alternative to Dual-Process Theory and Spinozan Theory. According to the author's account, the reasoning system operates like a soundboard in that the various property-pairs are like slides on a mixing board, and the process can be rerun multiple times. Because the reasoning system's final, settled outputs are beliefs, and a subject can rerun the reasoning process-adjusting the slides as they go-subjects exercise some control over what they believe. The author applies the nature of belief to the nature of religious commitment and explores future implications for the ethics of belief.

From Human Reasoning to Belief will appeal to scholars and graduate students working in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of cognitive science, and epistemology.

In Resistance is NOT Futile: Exploring Philosophical and Social Science Theories of Civil Resistance, Daniel Petz provides the starting base to understand the importance of civil resistance in our current world. He delves into the philosophical roots and the debates that have shaped modern forms of civil resistance and links them with the latest insights in civil resistance studies. He then discusses a broad number of topics linked to civil resistance including questions of legitimate authority and civil disobedience, the boundaries of violence and nonviolence, methods of civil resistance, maximalist, reformist, and systemic nonviolence, Global South and Majority perspectives on civil resistance, nonviolent defense, right-wing use of nonviolence, and the escalating struggle of the climate movement.

A valuable resource written for both scholars and students in philosophy and social sciences in mind, Resistance is NOT Futile aims at bridging the disciplinary gap that exists between these fields. The book should also be of interest to activists who wish to deepen their understanding of scholarly debates on civil resistance, as well as the general public interested in the historical, philosophical, and political dimensions of civil resistance.

Quis iudicabit? Wer entscheidet letztverbindlich darueber, wo die Kompetenzen der EU enden? Eine Analyse der verfassungsrechtlichen Grundlagen in den Mitgliedstaaten sowie der Unionsvertraege zeigt: Die Ultra-vires-Kontrolle ist ein Institut des Unionsrechts. Benedikt Riedl untersucht, welche Rolle der EuGH und die Verfassungsgerichte der Mitgliedstaaten in einem gemeinsamen Ultra-vires-Verfahren einnehmen. Vor dem Hintergrund der komplexen Herausforderungen fuer Demokratie und Rechtsstaatlichkeit im 21. Jahrhundert analysiert er die Funktion der Ultra-vires-Kontrolle als demokratiesichernden Kontrollvorbehalt innerhalb der europaeischen Rechtsordnung. Er zeigt, dass eine kooperative Anwendung als gemeineuropaeisches Kontrollverfahren zur Sicherung der europaeischen Demokratie beitraegt und zugleich die Einheit und Funktionsfaehigkeit des Unionsrechts wahrt.

Die Arbeit wurde mit dem Friedwart-Bruckhaus-Preis 2025 (Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Stiftung) sowie dem Fakultaetspreis 2025 der LMU Muenchen ausgezeichnet.

This open access book brings together some of the most eminent scholars of international trade to celebrate the scholarly, diplomatic, and institution-building achievements of Thomas Cottier, Professor Emeritus of International Economic Law at the University of Bern and founder of the World Trade Institute.

Over his half-century career, Thomas Cottier has promoted the development of international trade law by shaping our understanding of how multiple layers of law interact to form a global legal system. While multilateral trade law is the "melody" of the system, it is made fuller by a host of regional and national layers of harmonising - and sometimes discordant - legal rules.

Covering both general trade policy and the economic relations between Switzerland and the EU, the chapters examine Thomas Cottier's fundamental belief in the necessity of studying the interaction of every level of governance - local, national, and international - when considering the policies of economic exchange between countries, as well as his cosmopolitan belief in the need to foster a global community dedicated to bettering the lives of individuals around the world. The special relationship between the EU and Switzerland is addressed, honouring Professor Cottier's dedication to the political debates within Switzerland on the extent to which the country should participate in the European project, exemplifying the themes of multilayered governance and the common concerns of all people.

The book's contributors comprise leading scholars and practitioners who have worked closely with, or whose work and professional journeys have been largely influenced by, Thomas Cottier.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Bringing Michel Henry and Emmanuel Falque into dialogue, Mark Novak explores how they both articulate a phenomenology of the body and flesh in relation to incarnation.

As key proponents of the 'theological turn' in phenomenology, this volume illustrates how philosophical foundations inform Henry and Falque's theological views and uncovers the differences, and in some cases, surprising similarities between the two thinkers' positions on this central Christian tenet.

Beginning with a succinct overview of the origins of phenomenology and the shift towards embodiment, Novak surveys a number of different theories from Husserl's foundational distinction between flesh (Leib) and body (Koerper) to Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Dominique Janicaud. With this, focus turns to Henry and Falque. Methodically examining each thinker's key texts on flesh and the body, Novak proposes that their views on incarnation are not as different as philosophers might think. Even despite Falque's claim that Henry's views on the incarnation neglect materiality by understanding the human being as flesh, Novak demonstrates how Falque's critical response to Henry's idea ironically mirrors it. By turning to material forces to better describe the body in his recent work, Falque recapitulates Henry's understanding of flesh.

Phenomenologies of Incarnation in Michel Henry and Emmanuel Falque provides a much-needed introduction to the phenomenology of embodiment and its important implications for philosophical theology.

This book explores what judges do and how they perceive their roles in the context of growing dissensus over liberal democracy.

Focusing on the European landscape, it asks eighteen judges how they perceive their roles when judicial independence and democracy are under pressure. The book features interviews with judges from various EU and non-EU Member States and courts, complemented by a series of academic commentaries discussing the relationship between law and politics in times of dissensus over liberal democracy. Each narrative reveals unique personal experiences and reflections, shedding light on the role of the judiciary and the rule of law in the face of contemporary challenges. While the book engages with these issues through European narratives, its findings contribute to broader debates beyond Europe and the EU.