Mandarin is one of the most-spoken languages in the world. But when it was codified as the new national language in China between the 1910s and 1930s, its artificiality was such that only a handful of people could speak it with any fluency. The state-led creation and spread of China's national language is thus arguably the largest instance of social engineering in human history. What took centuries to accomplish in Europe was compressed into a mere three decades in China. How did this national linguistic unification happen? And, more broadly, what can this process teach us about the role of language in society?

Drawing from libraries and archives across the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China, With One Voice examines the Chinese state's efforts to standardize and elevate a new national language - the transition from classical Chinese to modern standard Mandarin in the early twentieth century. Jeffrey Weng argues that the ultimate form of the language was not inevitable. Rather, it emerged from a tangle of disputes and decisions made in the early years of the republic, representing a particular vision of Chinese society: unitary and egalitarian. Weng reconstructs and reinterprets events in early twentieth-century China, offering a fresh view of how social change take place and how nations are made through cultural reinvention.

Using big data resources and data mining methods, as well as econometric models and etc., this book provides several advanced assessment methods and empirical analysis of the economic impact of environmental disasters in China, and studied China’s sustainability development policy avoiding disasters. This book uses cutting-edge methods, such as generalized difference in difference, inoperational input-output models, improved computable general equilibrium and others to calculate the economic influence of environmental disasters. It evaluates the redistribution of air pollution emissions in China by using improved data envelopment analysis. In short, it provides the ideas, methods and cases of the sustainability development road to avoiding disaster.

This handbook provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of how artificial intelligence is transforming diplomacy, governance and the wider structures of society. Bringing together an international group of leading scholars, it maps the strategic, institutional, cultural, educational, economic and security implications of AI, offering an integrated framework for understanding technological change in the emerging technopolar world.

The volume's scope extends across both international and domestic spheres, revealing how AI redistributes global power, reshapes international order, alters diplomatic practice, and redefines major domains of social life including education, employment, media ecosystems, public discourse, cultural identity and national resilience. These themes are increasingly significant because AI now functions as a structuring force in world politics and societal transformation, influencing everything from international law and economic statecraft to learning systems, public opinion formation, crisis diplomacy and collective security.

Although scholarship on AI has expanded rapidly, there remains no single handbook that synthesizes these diverse developments within a coherent, diplomacy and society centred analytical framework. The core problem this handbook addresses is the lack of an authoritative reference that captures AI's simultaneous impact on global governance, diplomatic agency and societal evolution. Existing studies tend to illuminate individual sectors or policy challenges, yet a consolidated resource that brings together these intersecting transformations has been missing.

This handbook fills that gap by providing conceptual foundations, comparative perspectives and policy-oriented insights that connect technological innovation with social change and international relations. The volume is designed for an international readership of scholars, graduate students, diplomats, policymakers, educators and professionals seeking a rigorous, interdisciplinary reference on how artificial intelligence is reshaping diplomacy and society.

This volume presents a multi-disciplinary rendition of a rich, nuanced and contextually grounded outlook of gender-based violence (GBV) based on African experiences. The authors cover the roots, manifestations, and solutions to GBV while problematizing cultural practices, and government policies.

This book offers a rigorous and historically grounded analysis of Black women's political thought, activism, and institutional engagement across six decades. This book begins with 1965-a pivotal year in which the Voting Rights Act fundamentally transformed political participation for African Americans and, notably, the year Kamala Harris was born. This temporal convergence serves as the book's organizing framework, illustrating how the expansion of voting rights and the evolution of Black feminist politics created the conditions that made Harris's Vice Presidency possible. Drawing on political science, history, gender studies, and Black feminist theory, the chapters trace major developments in U.S. political life from 1965 to 2025. Topics include the interventions of Michelle Wallace, Ntozake Shange, and Alice Walker, as well as the implications of the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings for understanding gendered political vulnerability. The analysis also engages the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, showing how contemporary movements-including Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and the resistance to book bans-extend a longer tradition of Black feminist political critique. The text foregrounds key analytical concepts such as linked fate and Black feminist epistemology, making it an essential resource for scholars and students of American politics, African American studies, and feminist theory. By situating Kamala Harris's Vice Presidency within a broader historical trajectory, the book demonstrates that Black feminist political behavior is indispensable to understanding the development of modern U.S. democracy.

With each edition of Black Feminist Politics, Duchess Harris solidifies its position as an essential and enduring text that affirms the vital importance of using a Black Feminist analysis to interpret US politics, society, and culture.

Crystal M. Moten, author of Continually Working: Black Women, Community Intellectualism and Economic Justice in Postwar Milwaukee

This book seeks to incorporate often-neglected perspectives within discussions on migration and the global labour market. It focuses on the role and experiences of women involved in South-North migration and looks at the factors that lead to their migration and movement. Based on empirical evidence of women migrating from sub-Saharan African to Europe, the outcomes of migration are contextualised within the conditions female migrants faced in their original country. Access to waged employment and shifts within household power dynamics often appeal to women who live in countries where they only have access to unwaged work and where their civil, political, and economic freedoms are restricted. Insight into the economic and structural inequalities that prevent the marginalized, including women in less gender equal societies, from migration opportunities are also covered.

This book is a corrective to the current conversations on migration that overlook the economic and social experiences of women in the Global South. It will be relevant to students, researchers, and policymakers interested in the economics of migration and the experiences of migrants.

This short book introduces students of criminology to the 'critical dimension' of that subject. The focus of this volume is on how the critique proffered in and by 'critical criminologies' is itself not above criticism. Indeed, 'critical criminologies' would do well to acquire a self-reflective and self-critical attitude towards their own pre-conceptions and the desires that underpin them.

This argument is explored and developed across a number of themes and topics, including: an overview of the basic trends in critical criminology between WW2 and the turn of the century; the most recent splintering within the 'critical dimension' of criminology; the problem of criminalization; how power and discourse not only shape and reshape life conditions but also mystify the latter; the structural origins and forms of harm and violence; the continuing search for 'alternatives'; and finally, the crimes of the powerful. Ultimately, the book debates the multiformity, inescapability and ineradicability of critique in the 'critical dimension' of criminology.

This book analyses the evolution of competition and shifts in user behaviour over the past quarter-century, since 2000, within Japan's network media market from an economic perspective. It focuses on Japan's distinctive media market, characterised by the traditionally high market share of terrestrial advertising broadcasts and public service broadcasting, and conducts a step-by-step empirical analysis over time based on a wealth of data-a feature that is unique. Furthermore, by analysing not only the platforms but also viewer behaviour on the demand side, and by examining the state of digitalisation and internet distribution, the study offers a comprehensive analysis. Additionally, by focusing on bias in the newspaper market-where political impartiality is not mandated by law-and exploring the possibility of skewed reporting frequency and volume rather than content itself, the book makes a novel contribution. It thus serves as a scholarly work that offers valuable insights for future institutional design in the media market.

Amid North Korea's advancing nuclear capabilities and the declining credibility of U.S. extended deterrence, South Korea has a strong motive to pursue its own nuclear deterrent. With its advanced nuclear energy program, South Korea possesses the means to develop nuclear weapons indigenously. However, its opportunity to do so is constrained by the prohibitive economic, security and reputational costs of nuclear armament. To circumvent these costs, Seoul is engaging in "nuclear hedging," pursuing the capability to develop nuclear weapons rapidly while stopping short of actual weaponization.

Drawing on Korean- and English-language documents, archival materials, and interviews with South Korean security experts, Lami Kim offers the most comprehensive analysis to date of South Korea's pursuit of nuclear hedging as an alternative to both nuclear restraint and outright nuclear armament. South Korea's renunciation of its nuclear weapons program in the 1970s - and its subsequent restraint - should not be mistaken for an absence of nuclear ambition grounded in confidence in U.S. extended deterrence. Instead, under both conservative and progressive governments, Seoul has sought the ability to acquire nuclear weapons rapidly, if necessary, as an insurance policy. A major contribution to the literature on nuclear deterrence, nonproliferation, and Korean studies, this book delivers timely and insightful policy recommendations for both Washington and Seoul.

Feminist ideas spread quickly while feminism remains unpopular by designIn contemporary China, feminism circulates widely across digital media, popular culture, and consumer markets, yet it remains politically precarious. Viral Dissent examines this paradox through an incisive study of feminist activism, misogyny, and gender politics in China's rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Drawing on interviews, ethnographic observation, and analysis of high-profile online controversies, Sara Liao traces the complex life of feminism in a system shaped by platform capitalism, techno-nationalism, and individual users. Feminist discourse spreads through social media campaigns, influencer culture, and viral debates, but its visibility-and survival-is carefully managed. Through case studies of #MeToo activism, anti-victim-blaming campaigns, online misogyny, and digital feminist groups, Liao conceptualizes "unpopular feminism," a feminism that operates as both a popular cultural genre and a stigmatized political project. Some forms of feminist expression are celebrated as part of the booming "sheconomy," while others-particularly those calling for collective action or structural change-face marginalization, censorship, harassment, and nationalist backlash.

Bridging media studies, gender studies, and transnational feminist theory, Viral Dissent offers a powerful account of how feminist struggle is reshaped at the intersection of capital, technology, state power, and everyday media use, illuminating the possibilities and limits of activism in an era of global platforms, commercialized visibility, and authoritarian governance.

The essays collected in Law and Media present German media theorist Cornelia Vismann investigating how law functions through the media technologies used to produce, disseminate, and preserve it-from papyrus and the codex to courtroom stenography and Stasi files. Expanding on the understanding of the cultural techniques of law advanced in her landmark first book, Files, Vismann explores topics including the history of Roman law, the development of law books and archives, the transcription and translation of laws and legal proceedings, and the techniques and technologies of bureaucratic administration

Translated here for the first time into English and featuring an introduction situating Vismann's thought in terms of her scholarly interlocutors, this book brings Vismann's creative theoretical work, in the form of lively and accessible essays, to readers in cultural studies, media studies, political philosophy, and legal history. For first-time readers of Vismann, these essays will provide a valuable introduction to her key concepts and ideas, while those familiar with the pioneering media theorist will find additional insight into the theories and scholarship that shaped her unique approach.

This book delves into the under-researched intersection of strategic human resource analytics and intelligent data-driven systems. As organizations increasingly turn to artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance HR functions, chapters within this book critically investigate how these technologies are reshaping strategic decision-making, skill development, and organizational agility.

Drawing on empirical evidence and real-world case studies, the book equips scholars, practitioners, and policymakers with cutting-edge insights and strategic tools to navigate the evolving landscape of human resource management. It explores the transformative potential of intelligent systems in recruitment, training, performance evaluation, compensation, retention, and employee well-being while also considering the accompanying ethical dilemmas, privacy concerns, and cybersecurity risks.

By addressing the ongoing debates and controversies surrounding people analytics, this book offers a timely contribution to the discourse on human-algorithmic collaboration in the workplace. It is an essential resource for those seeking way in which to best use the power of data-driven HR strategies in this era of rapid technological change.

This second edition of the highly successful handbook builds on the first by offering a comprehensive, engaging, and up-to-date treatment of developments within the field of the sociology of aging. Beyond presenting an overview and update of foundational matters like advancements in theory and methodology, this edition addresses cutting-edge topics not covered in the first edition. These encompass intersectionality, sexuality, dementia, kinless aging, online social connectedness, grandparenting, death and dying, older adults in the workplace, politics, and the criminal justice system. It also considers aging in the context of crises, highlighting how the recent COVID-19 pandemic and environmental risks intersect with age-related policy, care, and inequality. This edition also extends the handbook's global reach, featuring 13 chapters with contributing authors based outside the United States.

Including chapters from both established and emerging scholars, this handbook is the go-to reference for students, scholars, and practitioners interested in the implications of aging for individuals, families, and societies.

This landmark volume offers the first comprehensive demographic examination of family transformation in contemporary India, situating the country's evolving landscape within the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) framework. It reveals a family system in flux, caught between deep-rooted collectivist traditions and rising individual aspirations. Grounded in extensive primary research, including unique, large-scale surveys across India, the book offers a thoughtful, data-driven analysis of how shifting family dynamics and evolving models of family-building are impacting vulnerable populations. These include women managing the "second shift," children shaped by diverse family structures, the elderly facing the erosion of care networks, and families bearing the responsibility of caring for disabled members. It navigates critical topics from transformations in nuptial bonding and cohabitation patterns among the urban educated to shifting childbearing practices and evolving marriage markets. What distinguishes this treatise is its capture of the fundamental dialectic: the tension between the "golden cage" of traditional marriage and the shadows of the SDT, rising age at marriage, marital dissolution, and individual self-actualisation, unfolding within persistent familial obligation and their impact on women's status and economic empowerment. Weaving macro-level data with rich micro-level evidence, the volume illuminates both winners and losers of this transition, offering indispensable insights for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners worldwide.

This seminal volume provides a rigorous doctrinal analysis of contemporary slavery through the lens of criminal law and legal dogmatics. It addresses the modern paradox of universal prohibition coexisting with thriving exploitation, offering a robust instrument for law interpretation in both domestic and international courts.

The treatise is organized into four sections. Section I establishes conceptual foundations, diagnosing slavery as an organic product of structural vulnerability within the global neoliberal model rather than a historical anomaly. It further provides a profound constitutionalist perspective on human dignity, a concept essential for a comprehensive understanding of slavery.

Section II maps international standards, tracing the evolution of Article 4 of the ECHR and ILO benchmarks. It elucidates the critical shift from legal ownership to the de facto exercise of powers attaching to ownership, maintaining the severity threshold required to distinguish human rights violations from mere labour malpractice.

A cornerstone of the work is the Anti-Slavery Model Legislation (The Guide to Domestic Legislation) in Section III. This template defines and provides penal frameworks for ten stand-alone forms of exploitation, including slavery, servitude, and forced labour. This section also offers comparative analyses of European and South American legal landscapes.

Section IV addresses institutions of heightened criminal relevance, including the non-punishment provision for victims, complexities in global supply chains, and the challenges of "borderless" criminal jurisdiction. It tackles corporate "ubiquity" and "forum shopping," proposing models to ensure accountability in fragmented productive networks.

By assembling preeminent legal scholars and practitioners, this book transcends sociological description to provide the dogmatic precision required to narrow the space of impunity. It serves as an indispensable resource for understanding how diverse jurisdictions regulate the most heinous affronts to human freedom and legal personality.

Why has multilateral peacebuilding in conflict-ridden states emerged as a depoliticized practice that rarely engages with local actors and agendas? And why has depoliticization persisted despite continued criticisms? Claiming Impartiality offers an innovative answer to the puzzling persistence of depoliticization in post-war peacebuilding that focuses on the institutional mandates, interests, and practices of those international and bilateral organizations that design and implement most peacebuilding interventions.

Drawing on and expanding a Bourdieusian field perspective, the book examines international organizations as actors in multiple fields of global governance. Using the case studies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Timor-Leste, it traces the emergence and transformation of peacebuilding practices by leading international and bilateral organizations during the first two decades of the field's existence. The organizational lens highlights the tensions that exist between the objectives of simultaneously acting as a peacebuilding organization and as a peacekeeping, humanitarian, or development organization whose practices are to varying degrees committed to observing the twin principles of impartiality and neutrality. By thinking through these sometimes contradictory roles, the book offers new insights into how these organizations sideline questions of political agency in favor of expanding their influence into related fields of global governance. Claiming Impartiality discusses the future of peacebuilding and explores avenues for addressing political challenges to peace itself.

This Open Access book argues for a more prominent position on political and policy agendas for European population ageing.? In the coming two decades, ageing populations will put significant pressure on pension systems, budgets, and economies in the European Union. Increasingly close integration between EU member states through political ties, trade and a common currency, means ageing in one country will have a direct impact on other member states. The book sketches four potential risks with cross-border implications: economic stagnation within the EU, high national debts and divergence, upward pressure on inflation, and socio-political tension within and between member states. In the report European Aging in Focus. Dealing with Pension and Budgetary Risks, the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) outlines three policy directions to anticipate and mitigate these risks: anticipate an ageing European Union and prepare society for it; steer at the EU level towards ageing-resilient socio-economic and pension policies; and protect at the national level against potential negative consequences of European ageing. While this book has a specific focus on the position of the Netherlands within an ageing Europe, it is of interest to policy makers and researchers across Europe interested in population ageing, associated pension and budgetary risks, and particularly in potential effects of these risks across national borders.?

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This book offers contemporary insights into the intersection of sustainable development, leadership, innovation, and organizational performance in a global context. Featuring 30 selected papers presented at the 20th Academy of Global Business Advancement (AGBA) World Congress held in Bangkok, Thailand, this book brings together research from scholars across Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States addressing real-world challenges in public governance, green management, digital transformation, and global business. The work also highlights critical themes such as artificial intelligence in marketing and governance, internationalization of global firms, the post-pandemic effects on SMEs, and sustainable practices in hospitality and manufacturing. By offering comparative and cross-country perspectives, this book provides a comprehensive understanding of global trends shaping business and entrepreneurship in an increasingly interconnected and digitalized world. This book is a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and graduate students in the fields of business, economics, sustainability, innovation management, and public administration.