Books published by Palgrave MacMillan

Dwelling is both an action and a location; it combines the spatial idea of habitation (dwelling in) with the temporal idea of lingering (dwelling on). We live not only in bricks and mortar, a tent, a hut or a spaceship, but also in that most changeful of forms, our body, or in a remembered or virtual home. Especially since COVID-19 we have seen changes in the topography of everyday life. In this multi-disciplinary collection, a complex of meanings is approached from a variety of specific, often personal angles.Framed by two longer essays which theorise how the psychology of home may change under sudden pressure and how social relations are embodied in windows, doors, walls and stairs, the book includes 18 further essays. Part I, 'Informal settlements', shows how a slum, urban development or nomadic life may create a self-sustaining identity; in Part II, 'Huts and bridges', impermanence shapes the state of dwelling, while Part III, 'Liminal bodies', presents bodies suspended at thresholds of change. Movement in time and space characterises the last three sections: Part IV, 'Moving home', depicts transitions and arrivals, Part V, 'Dwelling in Memory', focuses on recollections of past places and Part VI, 'Are we there yet?', points the way to a future in which the consulting-room changes to 2D, a family is exiled onto the small screen or we imagine breaking away altogether into outer space.

This Open Access volume assembles experts from the United States and India to examine six issues essential to the safety and security of nuclear facilities, technologies, and materials: insider threats, organizational culture, emergency response, physical protection, control of radioactive sources, and cyber security. Each chapter includes papers by an Indian expert and by an American counterpart. This unique structure contrasts the countries' diverse perspectives on nuclear security, situates technical problems within larger socio-political contexts, and identifies cooperative opportunities for the U.S. and India.

This book investigates the problematisation in Adam Smith's moral philosophy of a classical question: what makes us human beings from a moral standpoint? To do this, Riccardo Bonfiglioli explores the relationship between the concepts of 'human nature', 'mind' and 'the self' in order to reconstruct Smith's theory of subjectivity. After providing a systematic reconstruction of Adam Smith's conceptions of 'human nature', 'mind' and 'the self' - exploring some aspects of Smith's philosophy (nature, philosophy of history, sympathy and imagination) and their empirical expressions (education, conduct and character) - Bonfiglioli argues that, in Adam Smith's work, the meaning of 'moral human beings' would depend on the human being's effort to live in harmony with oneself and the others. According to Bonfiglioli, in Smith's moral theory, this 'harmony with oneself and the others' would be achieved in relation to a certain kind of awareness that can be possible when human beings try to judge the conduct and try to act according to the impartial spectator. Specifically, this impartial spectator is reinterpreted by the author in the light of the concept of immediacy.

This open access book aims to promote ecological and emotional research and education for sustainability by cultivating values and behaviours consistent with how nature makes us feel connected and nurtured. Built upon the intersection of ecological literacy and socio-emotional learning, grounded in sustainability and relational thinking, the research developed in the book covers a wide range of themes connected to the Agenda 2030.

Should religion and politics be kept apart? What should be the relationship between the church and the state? M.Y. Ciftci answers these questions by studying the most important event in the recent history of the Catholic Church: The Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The book provides a new interpretation of the Council's teaching on church-state relations to better appreciate its flaws and need for reform. By paying attention to the (often overlooked) importance given by the Council to the lay apostolate, it reveals how the Council did not reform, as is often thought, but retained a flawed conception of the laity's role in politics. It then proposes a new framework for understanding church-state relations using the ressourcement method of returning to scripture and tradition, and by a critical dialogue with Oliver O'Donovan and various Protestant biblical scholars of the Powers in the New Testament. Ciftci shows how fruitful an self-consciously ecumenical approach can be for political theology. As most ressourcement theologians have overlooked political issues, and since ecumenical theology rarely touches on issues of church-state relations, this work makes an original contribution to the ressourcement project and to ecumenism.

This book critically engages with the development-security nexus in contemporary Africa, coinciding with the twentieth anniversary of the African Union (AU). Despite widespread discourse on the 'Africa Rising' narrative, many African states grapple with persistent economic challenges, violent conflicts, Afrophobia, and democratic setbacks. The AU's efforts, alongside those of other regional actors, to leverage regionalism for driving socio-economic and political development while ensuring peace and security have yielded limited results. Consequently, this edited volume takes an incisive approach to unpack the complex and vexed issues obstructing sustainable advancements in security and development in Africa. While existing studies have predominantly centered on conventional conflict and development concerns, this book sheds light on the emerging realities and evolving dynamics shaping the region's trajectory. Utilising a comprehensive case study approach, the book places Africa's challenges within both historical and contemporary contexts, aiming to present sustainable policy options to bridge the myriad gaps in the continent's peace, security, and governance architecture. By addressing the intricacies of balancing individual state interests with collective regional advancement, this volume offers a pathway toward unlocking Africa's potential for development and fostering a prosperous and harmonious 'Africa We Want'.

Acts of terrorism and forms of counter-terrorism have been evolving for quite a long time. Although we have been living with these phenomena for centuries, they have only recently become part of the daily lives of many in the West since the dawn of the millennium. In some countries, they have become so prevalent that they shape the daily lives and habits of citizens. For these reasons, it is of utmost importance for all of us to understand the root causes, the drives and the motives behind terrorist activities, preferably even before they can materialize. In this challenge, counter-terrorism activities play a crucial role. In this book, contributors from various disciplines discuss terrorism and counter-terrorism on the African continent through case studies from Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana, or Mozambique and the Sahel region. In addition to analysis, they offer possible steps for improving the situation.

This book offers an entertaining study of the facts and fantasies associated with the vacuum cleaner as it evolved from a luxury gimmick to a household necessity. The iconic appliance of twentieth-century domestic revolution, the vacuum cleaner stands at the forefront of radical changes in technology, automation, finance, marketing, hygiene, infrastructure, time-management, domestic labour, and the history of dirt. This appliance also insinuates itself into the dominant phobias of the period, including totalitarianism and nuclear war. Maud Ellmann shows how modern literature, art, and other media have transformed this humble domestic mod con into a curmudgeon, windbag, cannibal, vampire, dictator, infanticidal mother, freedom fighter, mantrap, and lothario.

This book is a scholarly anthology that proposes a deep discussion about the multiple ways in which narrative journalism has portrayed nature, human interactions with nature, the global actions and the consequences of activities that have either attempted to explore it, exploit it, harness it, dominate it, and protect it. This essay collection offers an academic framework for literary journalistic narratives about nature and includes the study of long form journalism originated in different corners of the world, all exploring human-non human-nature interactions in all their power, finitude, peril and urgency.

​William Gibson's Neuromancer: A Critical Companion presents Gibson's rise as an influential figure within and beyond the science fiction field. Gibson's success with Neuromancer, the first novel to win the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and Philip K. Dick Award, is in part a direct result of the rising popularity of cyberpunk in the early- to mid-1980s, although it could just as easily be said cyberpunk's success was in no small part a direct result of Neuromancer's explosion onto the science fiction scene.Neuromancer's ongoing relevance remains undiminished because we are effectively living in a technocultural age that is increasingly difficult to distinguish from Gibson's novel. As Graham J. Murphy demonstrates in this companion, the novel remains instrumental in thinking through the ongoing explorations of the posthuman: transhumanism, the Utopia/Anti-Utopia dynamic, and capitalist realism, to name a few of themore significant critical vehicles with which to better understand and contextualize our technocultural age and Neuromancer's role in both shaping it and responding to it. This book provides a critical introduction to Neuromancer and cyberpunk culture.

How can we work towards ensuring that organisations are robust and highly productive and avoid issues such as tiredness, burnout, high employee turnover, motivational issues, or problems with the emotional climate? Bringing together the fields of process management and organisational behaviour for the first time, this book provides sorely needed practical guidance on how organisations can diagnose, anticipate, and address psychological issues in their workforces as well as process vulnerabilities in their operations. Advocating for a human-centred approach to process management, the authors help discover and prevent negative psychological issues related to emotional exhaustion. This book offers a step-by-step toolkit for burnout recognition and systematic prevention using established process management tools. Thus, the book offers a deep look into psychological aspects far beyond classical process management.

This book is concerned with the varying responses of South American countries to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Since Beijing launched the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, 3/4 of countries in the world have engaged with China's arrangement of promoting global physical and digital connectivity. This still leaves a quarter of them that have refused China's offer so far or withdrawn. How do we account for why countries chose to join the BRI while others do not? Research on South American countries' responses to the BRI is scant, but the topic is pertinent. While the great-power competition and systemic rivalry have spoiled the appetite of European countries to intensify their ties with China, many developing countries seem to be rather interested. This book will interest scholars of international political economy, geopolitics, foreign policy and international development.

Thirty years of developments in deliberative democracy (DD) have consolidated this subfield of democratic theory. The acquired disciplinary prestige has made theorist and practitioners very confident about the ability of DD to address the legitimacy crisis experienced by liberal democracies at present at both theoretical and practical levels. The book advance a critical analysis of these developments that casts doubts on those certainties -- current theoretical debates are reproposing old methodological divisions, and are afraid to move beyond the minimalist model of democracy advocated by liberal thinkers; democratic experimentation at the micro-level seems to have no impact at the macro-level, and remain sets of isolated experiences. The book indicates that those defects are mainly due to the liberal minimalist frame of reference within which reflection in democratic theory and practice takes place. Consequently, it suggests to move beyond liberal understandings of democracy as a game in need of external rules, and adopt instead a vision of democracy as a self-correcting metagame.

This textbook is an introduction to thinking ethically about global issues. Unlike existing books in this area, this book is truly interdisciplinary and includes a range of voices from both the Global South and the Global North. Rather than simply applying Western theories to case studies, Prof. Stephen Minister shows readers how to consider context and complexity, while respecting the agency of people elsewhere. It weaves together the work of thinkers and writers from the Global South with philosophical work on global ethics, relevant scholarship from other academic fields, and stories from fieldwork studying global issues on four continents. The textbook explores a variety of topics, including: cultural difference, gender, population, poverty, natural disasters, and development. It then encourages students to build on these ideas and think more deeply about topics such as foreign aid, inequality, immigration, international trade, climate change, human rights, and war and terrorism. Because the book's style is accessible and engaging, it will be an excellent text for ethics and global studies courses, as well as being of interest to general readers who want to think better about global issues.

In this book, Juli Gittinger argues that America's fascination (obsession?) with the apocalypse is a synthesis of religion, popular culture, and politics in a way that is particular to the US and consonant with mythological-historical narratives of America. As a result, we can identify American apocalypticism as a sort of religion in itself that is closely tied to "civil religion," that has a worldview and rituals that create identifiable communities and connects American mythology to apocalyptic anxieties. Gittinger discusses how various cultures and groups form as a result of this obsession, and that these communities form their own rituals and responses in various forms of "prepping" or survivalist practices. She lays out an argument for a broad eschatology prevalent in the US that extends beyond traditional religious designations to form an apocalyptic worldview that is built into our narrative as a country, as well as furthered by popular culture and media's contributionto apocalyptic anxieties. Subsequently, Gittinger uses case studies of apocalyptic events--current or speculative--that reveal how our anxieties about the end of the world (as we know it) inform our culture, as well as religious narratives that emerge from such crises.

As global supply chains become more complex, the need for expertise in their financial aspects grows. This book aims to equip students and professionals with the knowledge to navigate these complexities, ensuring efficient and resilient financial supply chain operations. It provides an in-depth exploration into the intricate and constantly evolving realm of supply chain finance. By merging key concepts, major mechanisms, hands-on risk analytics, and the latest technology trends, this book offers a seamless and comprehensive examination of the topic, grounded in the author's twenty years of academic research and hands-on experience. Students in supply chain management will gain a thorough understanding of the financial elements that are integral to modern supply chains, including the importance of liquidity, the role of financial institutions, and the optimization of cash flows within the supply chain ecosystem. Definitions will be used throughout the text to elucidate financial terminology that may be unfamiliar to management students. The instructor's manual will include PowerPoint slides, exercises, and quizzes to assess student comprehension and progress. This textbook will serve as the primary resource for understanding the financial dimensions of supply chains.

This book explores the significant textual relationship between Mary and Percy Shelley and the early works of the Brontë siblings. Through a detailed examination of the Shelleyan narrative accessible to the Brontës from their childhood to their final novels, this study argues for a fresh perspective on the Brontës' engagement with the Shelleys in both their juvenilia and later seven novels. In this respect, the book considers the Brontës as readers rather than exclusively as writers, viewing them as a product of the early nineteenth-century literary marketplace which maintained affinities to Romanticism. Reading, rewriting, and appropriating the textual Shelleys was a fundamental vein stemming the Brontës' writing from childhood, with Mary epitomising the model for what the sisters would eventually become: the female novelist.

This textbook is a comprehensive, engaging, and user-friendly introduction to philosophy of science, written by a philosopher and a scientist. By exploring traditional debates within philosophy of science, as well as analysing contemporary scientific controversies for philosophical bias, the reader is invited to reflect upon how philosophical assumptions influence scientific theory, methods, and practice. Key features: An accessible introduction to philosophy of science written by a philosopher and a scientist. Demonstrates the philosophical influences on scientific thinking, practice, and expert disagreement. Applies philosophy of science to analyse some specific real-life cases of scientific controversy. Includes some of the many important contributions from women philosophers and scientists. This book is an essential resource for students and teachers in philosophy of science. It is also useful for anyone interested in the philosophical influences on contemporary science.

This book explores how ideas of nature and the nonhuman play an important part in literary depictions of same-sex desire in twentieth-century Norwegian literature. Critically probing dichotomies such as pastoral/urban and human/animal, the chapters show how literary fiction constructs, represents, and interprets experiences of same-sex love and attraction, traditionally conceived as "unnatural." Providing in-depth studies of a variety of texts, this book demonstrates the merits of bridging the gap between the "de-naturalizing" project of gender and queer theory on the one hand, and, on the other, the ecocritical centering of material, nonhuman environments.

This volume explores the importance of inter-generational oral culture and stories that transcend time, space, and boundaries transmitted historically from one generation to the next through proverbs, idioms, and folklore tales in different geographical and spatial contexts. These important stories and their embedded life lessons are introduced, explained, and supplemented with pre and post educational activities and lesson plans to be used as learning resources. The centering of orality as a tool and medium for educating the future generation is a reclamation and reaffirmation of Indigeneity, Indigenous knowledges. and non-hegemonic approaches to support students in a socio-culturally sustaining manner. Through this understanding, this book explores the interconnectedness between culture, traditions, language, and way of life through oral storytelling, sharing, and listening.

This book addresses several key issues in the biological study of death with the intent of capturing their genealogy, the assumptions and presuppositions they make, and the way that they open specific new research avenues. The book is divided into two sections: the first considers physiology and the second evolutionary biology. In the first part, Huneman reconstructs a conceptual genealogy of experimental physiology based on an in-depth analysis of Bichat's investigations of death processes. In the second part he explains that biologists in the late 1950s put forth a research framework that evolutionarily accounts for death in terms of either an effect of the weakness of natural selection or a by-product of natural selection for early reproduction. He illustrates how the biology of death is a central field and that studying it provides insight into the way that the epistemic structure of this knowledge has been constituted, persists until now, and may conflict with some traditional philosophical ideas.

This open access handbook takes a comparative and global approach to analyse the practice of slavery throughout history. To understand slavery - why it developed, and how it functioned in various societies - is to understand an important and widespread practice in world civilisations. With research traditionally being dominated by the Atlantic world, this collection aims to illuminate slavery that existed in not only the Americas but also ancient, medieval, North and sub-Saharan African, Near Eastern, and Asian societies. Connecting civilisations through migration, warfare, trade routes and economic expansion, the practice of slavery integrated countries and regions through power-based relationships, whilst simultaneously dividing societies by class, race, ethnicity and cultural group. Uncovering slavery as a globalising phenomenon, the authors highlight the slave-trading routes that crisscrossed Africa, helped integrate the Mediterranean world, connected Indian Ocean societies and fused the Atlantic world. Split into five parts, the handbook portrays the evolution of slavery from antiquity to the contemporary era and encourages readers to realise similarities and differences between various manifestations of slavery throughout history. Providing a truly global coverage of slavery, and including thematic injections within each chronological part, this handbook is a comprehensive and transnational resource for all researchers interested in slavery, the history of labour, and anthropology.

The case studies in this Volume 2 book support the premise that organizational policies are what ensure institutionalization and sustainability of futures thinking in corporations, non-profits, and educational institutions. Futures thinking here reflects a systems approach utilized by organizational leaders to observe and interpret signals of change or disruption, identify trigger points of impact, employ foresight methodologies to build scenarios of the future and plan action, and then ultimately translate/actualize the most viable scenarios into successful business outcomes. What is new in the field of futures thinking today is not the general source of change (i.e., technology, globalization, and workforce well-being), but the tumultuous level of disruption occurring due to three phenomena--explosive use of social media, shift in great wealth, and government instability. Scholars and practitioners alike will find the case studies in this book provide nuanced insights into such disruptions, as well as discussion of best practices to ensure successful business solutions.

This edited collection examines the impact of new technologies and new managerial and policy perspectives on entrepreneurial development in Southern Africa, paying particular attention to small and medium sized enterprises, which contribute significantly to GDP and employment, but often find it difficult to survive beyond the first five years. Chapters are divided in two parts, the first covering technological perspectives and the second managerial perspectives. Africa's cultural and geographic diversity is taken into account, with authors from Ghana, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe providing regional case studies and the editors synthesising these discussions in a concluding chapter that touches on sustainability and development to working lives and livelihoods across the region. Exploring critical issues of entrepreneurial human capital development, innovation, technology, legislative frameworks and marketing strategies, this book will be of great interest to researchers, students and policymakers.

This Pivot explores the cultural economy of comedy in the UK, looking specifically at the links between industry practices and structures and who produces comedy in the UK. The research is based on interviews with comedians in the East Midlands; significantly, this demographic has been historically under-researched in studies of precarity, where the East Midlands is typically overlooked in discussions of arts funding and access in favour of a more simplistic north/south divide narrative. Similarly, whilst there has been increased discussion of the precarity of the creative and cultural industries, as well as media articles on the difficulty of breaking into comedy as a member of a marginalised group, there has been relatively little academic research to support this. While Friedman's work in particular has been helpful for understanding the link between comedy producers, class and taste making, there has been less attention paid to the sociologies of work within comedy. This book fillsthese gaps in research by exploring the experiences of comedians in the East Midlands, contributing to the rich body of scholarship on inequality in the cultural industries and promoting a better understanding of the impact of structural inequalities and precarity on access to the cultural industries.

This book analyses the emergence and growth of the creative sector in Naples between the early modern and modern eras, focusing particularly on the development of music markets in the city. From the seventeenth century, Naples became one of the most culturally enriched regions in the Italian peninsula, with internationally known music schools, theatres and opera venues attracting visitors from across Europe in a burgeoning tourist market. This book sheds light on the driving economic factors and political contexts behind this key case study for the early growth of the opera and music sector in Europe. Starting with a discussion of the value of economic history to understanding cultural industries, the chapters approach this analysis through multiple lenses: the formation of human capital as the result of Naples' institutional urban welfare system; the role of cultural consumption as it evolved from a primarily religious activity to growing popular demand; and the rolethat central city authorities played in encouraging cultural activity through private investment and public policy. The book also draws on fascinating archival research to examine the contribution of Naples' music conservatories in the local creative economy. This book is a valuable resource to a broad range of readers, including those working in economic history, tourism history, the history of music and theatre, Italian social history and more.

This book presents original qualitative research on the lives, identities, and experiences of queer Canadian Muslims and is the largest study to date on this population. Presented through a queer intersectional framework, the volume contains core evidence-based chapters on the lived experience, as well as the transnational politics of Islamophobia and LGBTQ+ rights promotion, the research on Muslim attitudes to queer issues, and the representations of queer Muslim issues within Canada. Key issues covered include: queer Muslim organizing, how queer Muslims reconcile faith, sexuality and gender identity through affirmative and liberatory frameworks and actions, how Muslims in Canada respond to sexual and gender diversity. The contributors also lay out future academic and research possibilities for further investigation and for the development of equity practices for recognizing and challenging the oppressions suffered by queer Muslims, addressing the discussion to queer Muslims as well as mainstream LGBTQ+ groups and mainstream Muslim groups.

The main objective of this book is to add, from a humanist perspective, new interdisciplinary insights and research results to the current academic debate on aging. The collection aims to enhance and complement the predominantly biomedical and sociological debates and provide a more comprehensive and highly topical view on aging and old age. By purveying a meaning-in-life perspective to the current debate we want to enrich and to deepen the research on aging, thus aspiring to an ideal of meaningful aging. The starting point of this book is a humanistic meaning frame for addressing basic needs of a meaningful existence, such as having goals in life, a sense of self-worth, connectedness with others, moral justification, a certain degree of understanding (comprehensibility), direction and influence with a view to cohesion in life, and not in the least place: (living) pleasure or excitement. Taken together, the essays show that experiencing a meaningful life contributes to one's mentalresilience, conceived as the ability to realize a humane individuality (autonomy) in thinking and acting in situations of adversity and vulnerability, particularly those faced by older people.

This book seeks to respond to these needs and focuses on the complexity, multiplicity, intersectionality, and dynamism of cultures with an approach that focuses on critical and emancipatory peacebuilding; values local and everyday peacebuilding; includes diverse voices; and draws on a narrative approach to link the personal and political. There is a pressing need for research, theory-building, teaching, and practice in how we work to resolve conflict and violence between identity groups--whether that identity is based on perceptions of ethnicity, gender, "race," class, or political affiliation. The objective of this book project is to create a text that brings together emerging voices in the field of peace and conflict studies and that links major themes from the social sciences to peace and conflict studies theory-building, research, and practice. It is relevant to students, educators, and practitioners in the fields of peace and conflict studies, cultural studies, sociology, and related disciplines.

This book offers theoretical and empirical contributions on the approaches, policies, practices concerning the inclusion of migrants through social entrepreneurship. Grounded in a multi-disciplinary approach and with a special focus on the Adriatic-Ionian region, the book offers a debate on the antecedents, processes and outcomes of social entrepreneurship and migrants' inclusion, describing some innovative initiatives and their potential transferability in other contexts. The Adriatic-Ionian macro-region represents an interesting yet overlooked area of research, characterized by evolving migration and inclusion policies, together with specific legislation and reforms for social entrepreneurship. The migration dynamics along the so-called Balkan Route confer to this macro-region strong political relevance in the field of security and migration management. Contributing to the targets of SDG 8, the book contextualizes the opportunities offered by social entrepreneurship as a form of decent work for migrants, and of potential growth driver for local and international territories.