This book provides an in-depth exploration of ethics and rationality in the context of the contemporary Indian perspectives, focusing on applied ethics in organizational, technological, environmental, and philosophical contexts. It addresses the urgent need for ethical frameworks in our rapidly evolving world, offering insights and practical solutions grounded in Indian philosophical traditions.? It covers organizational ethics, where the role of ethical practices in fostering academic excellence, employee well-being, and inclusive leadership is examined. Corporate social responsibility and environmental ethics are discussed through case studies on renewable energy, climate change disclosures, and sustainable business practices, emphasizing the importance of ethical corporate governance.

In this book, Leif DeVaney brings the traditional philosophical branches of metaphysics and ethics to bear on conservation biology. While many previous attempts at asking and answering ethical questions related to conservation and other environmentally relevant activities exist, few such attempts have engaged adequately with the “rock bottom” approach of metaphysics. Through this metaphysically realistic lens, the ontological
status of the population (as well as other ecological “wholes”) is challenged. DeVaney argues that individual nonhuman animals are found to have interests that parallel human interests. These include the biotic goals of survival and reproduction, as well as freedom from undue pain and suffering. From an ethical standpoint, the conclusion differs drastically from the dominant consequentialist contention that the good of some can be sacrificed for the supposed greater good of the many. DeVaney initiates the establishment of the ?subdiscipline of conservation metaphysics, which naturally leads to a theoretically grounded ethic.

This book privileges Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in research and serves as a voice in taking on some of the more marginal topics within methodologies. It is significant in that it is written by indigenous scholars themselves. The contributors shed light, for example, on Queer BlaQ bodies and place Indigenous women as central in reimagining fair academic practice; others return to their foundational texts to reflect on the growth of Indigenous Standpoint Theory. This book sees Indigenous Peoples as holding greater significance within research objectives and institutional practices and reimagines a research world embracing storytelling as foundational to academia. It is intended for students and early researchers, particularly Indigenous researchers, whilst also serving as an invaluable textbook for non-Indigenous people as it aids in explaining and outlining Indigenous research and is a valuable tool in the classroom and with research students. It demonstrates that Indigenous research approaches can sit beside and be equal to Western research, especially when engaging with the ethics process and for PhD students. This book is invaluable for non-Indigenous allies and researchers globally to further explain and outline Aboriginal (Australian) Indigenous research.

This book explores how Kazakhstan has navigated its identity and geopolitical relationships since the January 2022 protests and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. What began as a study of Soviet legacy in Kazakhstan shifted focus when major events in 2022 altered the country's internal politics and regional standing.
We trace Kazakhstan's complex history with Russia from the incorporation of Kazakh nomadic territories into the Russian Empire through the Soviet era to today's complex relationship. The Soviet policies of collectivization and sedentarization dramatically transformed traditional Kazakh society, with devastating consequences like the Asharshylyk famine that continue to shape national memory and identity.
The book examines Kazakhstan's development under Presidents Nazarbayev and Tokayev, looking at how their "social contract" prioritized economic growth and stability over political freedoms. We provide a detailed look at the January 2022 protests, their aftermath, and Tokayev's subsequent reform agenda aimed at political modernization.
In the shadow of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, we show how Kazakhstan walks a diplomatic tightrope?maintaining necessary ties with Russia while avoiding Western sanctions and developing new partnerships, especially with Turkic states. Using postcolonial theory, we analyze how historical power dynamics continue to influence Kazakhstan's search for identity and place in the world.
Through five chapters, we offer readers a window into Kazakhstan's evolving sense of self, its changing relationships with global powers, and the potential for Pan-Turkism to provide a complementary alliance to Russian-dominated regional frameworks.

This book uses the contrast between the theoretical positions of the two Max Webers - that is the Weber of the Protestant Ethic thesis and the Weber of the theory of action - as the basis for developing a theory of agency and an associated dynamic interpretive approach to action. The book critiques traditional theories of action for neglecting the physical dimension, for conflating agency with action, and contrasting the latter with behaviour. It argues that action is not just cerebral or communicative but inherently tied to effort, emotion, and imagination, with voluntarism understood in terms of attention instead of intention, and the exercise of will rather than choice. This is the basis of a "dynamic interpretivist" approach, one that integrates behavioural insights with interpretive sociology, highlighting how actors actively maintain their power of agency. The concept of "character" is also introduced as a crucial link between individual agency, ethical values, and cultural systems. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of sociology, anthropology, media studies, and criminology, as well as social theorists.

This volume sets out to address current gaps in research thinking on how material and non-material factors work in tandem to inhibit effective sustainable development transitions across differing world settings. It will showcase a body of research that accounts for the experiences of cohorts residing in various world regions and provide the reader with a series of conceptual tools with which to understand major factors currently shaping responses to climate change. In that, it responds directly to calls by various international agencies for research communities to provide more detailed evidence of how climate change not only adds to existing societal burdens but also creates newer ones and critically reconsider strategies for realizing UN Sustainable Development Goals in ways that bring SDG 10 on inequalities and SDG 13 on climate action, in particular, together more strategically.

With a heavy emphasis on the need for communities to abandon many established socio-cultural practices and adjust comprehensively to a series of new climate imperatives (social, environmental, economic, etc.), little attention is paid to the potential risks these changes pose to the health and wellbeing of vulnerable cohorts. As these risks may constitute considerable barriers to long-term resilience-building and effective climate actions, the difficulties encountered by different communities need to be better understood and accounted for in climate change research. This volume sets out to examine these issues and consider more equitable approaches to climate change resilience-building.

In The Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System, Remi Chandran chronicles a twenty-year journey to develop an innovative tool that enhances wildlife law enforcement information sharing through mapping technology. The book examines the intrinsic challenges of data sharing, which is shackled by conflicting regulations, ideologies, and institutional barriers. By exploring the changes in the wildlife-trade policy system and the evolving roles of key actors, Chandran reveals how these shifts transformed the Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System ?(WEMS). The novel WEMS ?initiative redefined data-exchange ?practices and shaped the way for platforms like the Digital Public Infrastructure to tackle humanature conflicts. More than a technical achievement, this is a story of collaboration, resilience, and shared knowledge.

This is an innovative and inspirational examination of films and documentaries that helps us explain the evolution of, struggles of, and aspirations of the American experiment.

This book sorts politics into categories and then identifies films, TV shows, and documentaries that illuminate various aspects of that category. For each chapter, the authors list and discuss an impressive variety of films, documentaries, and television shows. This accessible book is designed for course use and general readers interested in how American politics and history has been portrayed in media.

This open access book brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to examine how North American civil society organizations have actively mobilized within and across borders in response to the tumultuous social and economic changes in the region since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Contributors from the three countries address the implications of recent changes in areas such trade, labour, migration and human rights.? They draw on a rich and varied set of empirical case studies to detail the opportunities and constraints that activists have encountered as they navigate a changing landscape marked by the renegotiation of NAFTA, Trump’s threats to build a US-Mexico border wall, the COVID-19 pandemic and continued restrictions on migration. The contributors highlight organizing strategies, the potential for new alliances and pose critical questions about the nature of? transnational activism in the current conjuncture. ?

This Brief develops the necro-president as a figure through which the collapse of American political life becomes visible. In our present moment of political upheaval, the necro-president reflects how death, not law or the people, has come to shape the meaning of the presidency.

The office, once imagined as a source of vitality and democratic promise, now signals exhaustion, spectacle, and symbolic decay. Focusing on the 2024 election, The Necro-President shows how Joe Biden and Donald Trump came to represent two sides of a collapsing republic. Biden, cast as a spectral figure, became a symbol of entropy and decline. Trump, by contrast, positioned himself as a resurrectionist, a messianic leader who could overcome decay and save the republic. What followed was not the return of life to the presidency but the normalization of death as a mode of rule.

This critical philosophical intervention moves beyond debates about democratic erosion and constitutional crisis. It asks what happens when political life continues even after the symbols that once gave it meaning have gone hollow.

This book is open access.

This Handbook presents thorough literature reviews and detailed analyses on the development of China's social sciences research since the reform and opening up in 1978. The handbook is comprised of 4 sections: politics and law, sociology and economics, demography and education, journalism studies and library science. Written and edited by leading scholars from Peking University, each volume critiques the research findings and provides guidance for future investigations of the respective field. Given its scope, the handbook will offer international academics an in-depth and up-to-date understanding of the development of Chinese scholars' research on Chinese social sciences over the past forty years.

This book examines the roots and elements of the research and knowledge-generation problems in US intelligence.

The work identifies the crux of the problem as the lack of a research capability in US intelligence, which has developed over the past 40 years due to a variety of organizational decisions that prioritized current intelligence reporting and a focus on structural solutions to fix intelligence failures. The book argues that this is the principal cause of recent major intelligence failures regarding 9/11, the 2003 Iraq War, and the current Russia-Ukraine War. Throughout the book, the authors aim to provide short-, medium-, and long-term, policy-relevant recommendations to intelligence officials and members of the US Congress, in the form of workforce, leadership, and organizational changes that can be implemented to address existing research shortcomings in intelligence analysis. The book's conclusions will also be relevant to the intelligence agencies of other countries.

This book will be of much interest to students of intelligence studies, national security, US politics, defense studies, and international relations.

This book considers how public diplomacy is employed as an instrument of statecraft by Middle Eastern and Asian governments to leverage soft power. Senior, mid-career, and junior scholars from academia and think tanks synthesise their expertise to deploy historical, geopolitical, and economic approaches in their analyses and observe how new practices of public diplomacy have been developed, tested, and applied in the two regions. Building and extending on the extant scholarship, which remains mostly focused on East Asia, it incorporates the Middle East not only as a recipient but also as a practitioner of public diplomacy. The thematic focus is underpinned by case studies of individual nation-states, enabling analysis of concrete examples that shed light on the evolution of Asia-Middle East ties.

This volume is an essential reference for scholars and policymakers in the fields of international relations, international political economy, and area studies who seek to explore relations between these two geographical areas beyond traditional diplomacy.

This edited collection offers an unprecedented focus on decolonising audience and user studies in the global South, challenging essentialist discourses of media imperialism and technological determinism.

Including original essays and contemporary case studies spanning Africa, Middle East, Latin America, and Asia, this book provides a nuanced double critique of both local and West-centric approaches, pushing back against historically extractive audience research logics that have marginalised global South perspectives. This volume emphasises the importance of everyday experiences and advocates for building bridges between emerging philosophical discourses of modernity, postmodernity, and digitality from the global South and diverse ways of being digital. By critiquing narrowly defined methodologies and recovering previously delegitimised experiences, this book reimagines audience research through new evidence, methods, and theories that centre previously discarded voices and contexts.

This essential resource serves both as a rallying call for epistemic justice and as a practical guide for decolonial approaches in media and communication studies. It will be invaluable for practitioners, activists, scholars, researchers, policymakers, and students across various disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, Global South studies, media, communication, and cultural studies.

Queer Intimacies and Cultural Dissent in Japanese Life: Quiet Subversion offers an intimate cartography of LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and others) expression across contemporary Japan.

Featuring over 100 profiles of activists, artists, politicians, scholars, theologians, manga creators, and media figures, this book introduces "quiet subversion" as a methodological framework for understanding how dissent operates through ambiguity, relational care, satire, and refusal. Writing as both a scholar and tojisha (insider), the author analyzes personal testimonies, cultural texts, and public interventions to document the strategies that sustain queer life under social constraints. Moving beyond conventional survey approaches, the book presents firsthand accounts of how LGBTQ+ individuals navigate Japanese social structures while creating spaces for authentic expression.

Queer Intimacies and Cultural Dissent in Japanese Life: Quiet Subversion is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students in Queer Studies, Asian Studies, and Media Studies, as well as researchers exploring the intersections of identity, resistance, and cultural production in contemporary Japan.

Chen examines the Chinese Nationalist government's distinctive support for private Muslim teachers schools between the 1920s and 1940s, and explores the complex relationship between these institutions and the Chinese state during the Republican period.

In 1933, the government issued the Teachers Schools Regulations, mandating that all teachers schools be state-run. However, the Nationalists viewed private Muslim teachers schools as valuable allies in their efforts to assert influence in China's Muslim-dominated northwestern frontier region and deliberately refrained from enforcing the 1933 Teachers Schools Regulations on them. Instead, the government applied the 1933 Amended Private Schools Regulations, which did not specifically address teachers schools, to govern Muslim teachers schools. By charting the evolving dynamics between the Nationalist state and Chinese Hui Muslims, this book reevaluates the Hui Muslims' role in shaping modern China.

Offering crucial context on the role of Islam in modern China, this book is a valuable resource for scholars and students of Chinese history, as well as for policymakers and journalists interested in religion in China.

This book delves into the innovative thinking, new and key agendas, and practical evolution of China's diplomacy in the new era. As the world has entered a new epoch, the once-in-a-century world transformation is accelerating, and great power rivalry becomes increasingly prominent, with the Sino-US strategic competition emerging as the driving force behind the tremendous shifts in international relations. The interaction between China and the world has undergone significant changes, and China's diplomatic adjustments have captured global attention. This book elucidates the underlying logic behind these diplomatic adjustments, summarizes the manifestations of China's diplomatic concepts and innovative practices, highlights the numerous new issues arising from China's interaction with the world, analyzes the challenges and dilemmas faced by Chinese diplomacy, and explores new directions for China's diplomatic breakthroughs.

This book serves as a theoretical guide for professional researchers, including experts, scholars, research personnel, and students, while also offering a systematic understanding for a wide range of readers interested in China-related issues, including those in the business world, policy circles, and international activists.

The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.

This volume explores the major moral theories and their distinctive approaches and controversial implications regarding sex. Despite being a commonplace human activity, contemporary discussions of the norms regarding sex?particularly those that connect with the major moral theories?are relatively rare. This volume shows that the relative silence is important, for all the major moral theories appear to have controversial implications about the morality and value of sex. Consequently, either widespread Western assumptions about sex are mistaken or else the major moral theories have serious problems when it comes to the ethics of the bedroom. Adopting a metaethical Mooreanism about our sexual intuitions offers a potential compromise, such that some of the more novel and controversial Western intuitions are abandoned with resulting room for at least one moral theory to remain viable.

This book examines the occurrence and repercussions of insecurity on Africa’s oceans and seas, their impact on state sovereignty, national security, and the economy, and looks at how it could be moderated, eradicated, or combated. Maritime security is generally and primarily associated with piracy in the world’s oceans. But it is expansive and broader than that. As such, the book also looks at extralegal activities such as illegal fishing, kidnapping, human trafficking, smuggling, pollution and erosion, terrorism, that occur not only in the world’s oceans but also in regional seas, rivers and ports. The authors also focus on how national measures to combat maritime insecurity work alongside inter-governmental organizations and legislation such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

This book offers a timely exploration of how authoritarian states communicate with foreign publics, blending strategies of attraction, persuasion, manipulation, and control. As authoritarian regimes grow more sophisticated in projecting influence beyond their borders, this publication investigates the tools they employ from soft power initiatives in culture, sports, and academia to sharp power tactics of disinformation and censorship. Through a comparative lens, authors uncover the nuances of these regimes' practices, challenging assumptions about where public diplomacy ends and propaganda begins. By examining cases including China, Cuba, Egypt, Morocco, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Venezuela, this book sheds light on the transnational implications of authoritarian public diplomacy in an era of shifting global power dynamics. An essential reading for scholars of international relations, political communication, and public diplomacy, this publication offers fresh insights into the evolving struggle for influence on the world stage.

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The book’s main aim is to present an understanding of why public diplomacy is relevant in today’s changing global world order and explain how Turkiye is investing in this field, prompted by the developments regarding its foreign policy. The readers will be informed about the relationship between international relations and public diplomacy efforts; the example of Turkiye will focus on the transformation the country’s practices. The concept of power will be put under the spotlight, and various aspects such as influence, and soft power will be addressed as well. Turkiye, surrounded by numerous challenges from ongoing conflicts in neighboring countries to global threats including terrorism, feels the need to communicate its policies in an accurate way to the international publics to support its foreign policy objectives, focusing on tools of public diplomacy. It is believed that the book will be of great interest to scholars of international relations, public diplomacy, and political communication. The book will provide a nuanced understanding of the role of concepts such as influence, soft power, reputation in international relations by giving a detailed example of Turkiye’s approach.

This book offers an account of the European Union (EU) facilitated dialogue for normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, examining how the EU’s approaches, local politics, and civil society shaped the process. ?Rich with sources, it is essential reading for peace negotiations and EU’s work in the Western Balkans. Using first-hand experience, the book explains why the talks scored significant wins but have yet to achieve full normalization of relations between the two countries. Chapter 1 outlines the objectives of the normalization dialogue. Chapter 2 examines why the normalization dialogue became necessary even after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Kosovo’s independence was legal. Chapter 3 dissects the dialogue's so-called ‘technical’ phase, while Chapter 4 examines the shift to the political phase. Chapter 5 showcases civil society's corrective power and limits, while the conclusion deduces lessons for future EU mediation approaches and conflict resolution.

‘The indispensable guide to the election: invaluable statistics, revealing insights, astute analysis. A must-read for those interested in Irish politics.’

? David McCullagh, author, journalist and news presenter, RTE

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‘The How Ireland Voted series is the go-to guide for each election, used to analyse the last election and prepare for the next. How Ireland Voted 2024 continues in that tradition with fascinating data, analysis and coverage of the whole election. Indispensable.’

? Mary Regan, Political Editor, Irish Independent

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‘The book offers fascinating insights into party and voter dynamics during the 2024 Irish elections, all within the unique Irish party and electoral system. It’s exciting to see so many political scientists building on the growing wealth of high-quality research data to explore electoral and campaign behaviour in such depth and detail.’

? Professor Georg Lutz, University of Lausanne?

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In 2024, all across the democratic world governments were being thrown out of office as far-right and other radical parties made breakthroughs. In Ireland, the conditions seemed favourable for change. An ongoing housing crisis, which had heightened Sinn Fein’s electoral expectations, and a turbulent year preceding the election, which had seen anti-immigration riots in Dublin city centre, suggested that Ireland might follow the international trends. Yet support for the incumbent Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties held up, and the government was returned to office, albeit with new junior partners. How did this happen?

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This tenth volume in the?How Ireland Voted series?provides the definitive analysis of the election. It covers the campaign, the results and voting behaviour, government formation, and has a particular focus on the reasons why there was no far-right breakthrough. With an overview of Ireland’s newly emerging party system, it asks: is this the New Normal?

This research contributes to scholarship on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/ Questioning, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) rights at the international level and how LGBTQIA+ non-governmental organisations (NGOs) use international channels to advance the cause domestically, with a focus on countries that have a strong presence and influence of the Catholic Church. Case studies include Ireland, Italy and Peru. Based on over fifty interviews, author Helen Karen West identifies how specialised LGBTQIA+ INGOs facilitate access to international channels for local NGOs and argues that by accessing transnational networks and utilising international NGOs to access United Nations’ (UN) channels, local NGOs have a better chance of influencing domestic policy change in majority Catholic countries. She argues that it is necessary to consider an additional actor to predict outcomes more efficiently: the opposition, in this case, the Catholic Church and affiliated organisations, and its transnational network. West offers helpful insight into influencing domestic policies in countries with strong opposition to allow LGBTQIA+ organisations a better chance to succeed in their work and further the academic dialogue.?

This volume examines the history of natural disasters in the United States and the nation's ongoing struggles with long-term disaster preparedness and response. It explores the political, economic, and cultural factors that have shaped the country's vulnerability. It highlights why, despite its vast resources, the United States has remained one of the most resistant actors in recognizing and mitigating disaster risk.

Bringing together contributions from a variety of fields, this book analyzes the role of political institutions, media narratives, and cultural perceptions in shaping disaster policy. It examines key historical events to identify patterns of governance failure and missed opportunities to build resilience. Ultimately, this volume provides crucial insights into the historical baggage that the United States brings to multilateral climate negotiations, helping to explain its often frustrating role on the international stage.

This book is essential reading for students, researchers, and scholars in the social sciences, humanities, and environmental studies, as well as policymakers and practitioners seeking a deeper understanding of the challenges and shortcomings of U.S. disaster mitigation policy.

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Chapter?“‘Becoming Green:’ Resilient and Green Building as Risk Mitigation in Atlanta, Georgia” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book is one of three volumes that provide a systematic overview of public administration, public management and public governance in Italy. This second volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach to introduce readers to the ways in which public administration in Italy has been studied by various disciplines since the conception of the modern Italian state more than 150 years ago, including administrative law, management, economics, psychology, political science and public policy. The book also assesses key traits regarding the training, recruitment and regulation of public employment in Italy, as well as the role of oversight and judiciary bodies in the practice of public servants’ work. Contributors comprise some of the leading historians, political scientists, lawyers, social scientists and public management scholars from Italy, some of whom have also held key posts in the Italian public sector. It will appeal to students and scholars of public administration, public management and public governance, as well as practitioners with an interest in Italy.

This book examines the significant changes reshaping the European media landscape in the context of rapid technological advancements, political shifts, and economic pressures. It sheds light on the economic, political, and structural forces behind these transformations, focusing particularly on the impact of platformisation, media convergence, and the emergence of new players on media production, distribution, and consumption. At the same time, the book analyses how platform dominance is reshaping European media ownership by fostering mergers and collaborations, while also raising concerns about media concentration. Against this backdrop, it also considers the evolving role of public broadcasters, as governments and policymakers grapple with the challenge of regulating new media realities while maintaining diversity and pluralism. It also discusses the implications of the trends for European identity and the European public sphere, particularly the tension between a top-down, institutional, and regulatory approach to Europeanisation.

Providing a detailed overview of the trends and shifts shaping the future of European media, the book offers key insights into the dynamics and challenges of the contemporary media environment. It will appeal to students, researchers, and media professionals interested in media studies, European studies, international communication, and public policy. Its insightful analysis and empirical grounding enable readers to gain a better understanding of the ongoing transformations in the European media sector and the future direction of the media in the digital platform era.