Böcker utgivna av Palgrave MacMillan

Roughly eight million years ago, a branch of hominids from the forests of East Africa started to adapt to the drier environment created by the East African Rift System. A host of physical developments culminated in the brains of early humans increasing dramatically in size and cognitive power. Aided by a unique social organisation, communication signals became conventionalized and passed on from generation to generation through imitation and learning. But language is not only used to interact with our fellow beings. It is also closely connected to our thoughts. This makes language a biological, social, cultural and cognitive phenomenon all at once. What precise role did each of these aspects play in the origin of language and how were they all coordinated to produce the most sophisticated communication system in the animal kingdom? This book aims to answer these questions and open up the fascinating world of evolutionary linguistics. It should not only appeal to students of linguisticsand related fields (e.g. psychology, anthropology, cognitive science) but also to anyone with an interest in language, language learning and communication. Also ideal for advanced students of English as a Foreign Language.

This book argues that E. M. Forster, T. S. Eliot, and Virginia Woolf engaged sustainedly with real and imagined places as sites of counter-cultural politics. These writers used architectural images in diaries, essays, novels, poems, and plays to express their dissatisfaction with imperial London: from the glorification of war to the erosion of local religious and linguistic traditions, and rigidly gendered practices in domestic and public life. Drafty Houses shows that each author experienced post-war modernity as intimate spatial dislocation--in Egypt (Forster), in the church (Eliot), or in London's museums and streets (Woolf)--and traces connections between their personal experiences and lesser read publications to theorize about the impact of places on their writerly perspectives. By closely examining each author's negotiation of space symbolic of Englishness, empire, and global politics, Drafty Houses considers the limitsand the open-ended possibilities of liberal humanism, Christian conservatism, and feminist pacifism.

This book provides a uniquely detailed analysis of presidential elections in Nigeria's Fourth Republic. The authors explore the changing dynamics of voting patterns, religious politics, politicians' behaviour and the broader political system to offer new insights into presidential systems in Africa and beyond. In doing so, they address an often-neglected area of political science and cast light on the political challenges facing one of the world's largest democracies. The book's comprehensive coverage of Nigerian presidential elections - and the lessons they hold for developing countries across the globe - is a valuable resource for researchers, students, international institutions and non-governmental organisations.

This open access book considers how relationships to place and spatial ecologies more broadly are becoming redefined in light of intersecting climate, health, identity and care crises. Through an interdisciplinary, intersectional discourse it investigates how spaces of liminality frame contemporary human conditions in their interactional modes with both human and non-human ecologies. The interspace grounds the discussion, indicating states of flux and transience, where the in-between is the defining characteristic. This open access monograph, then, takes up the new complexity in one's relationship(s) to their surrounding spaces through a rigorous discussion of texts and performance contexts in cutting-edge contemporary British theatre on a national and international scale. It seeks to address how in-betweenness spatially, temporally, environmentally, geographically and socially conceived has been emerging as the primary state for the unmoored individual of our time - and how it might serve as catalyst for performing one's agency in modes more empathetic not only to other humans, but, also, and equally, to the non-human world.

Performative Representation of Working-Class Laborers: They Work Hard for the Money is a transdisciplinary anthology intersecting art theory praxis, comparative literature, film & media studies, performance art, ethnic studies, gender studies, age & aging, geography, and labor studies. The book investigates and analyzes artwork created by artists or collectives working within the dialogue of Postmodernism and current global arts production. The focus on performative aspect of labor as art and affect becomes more sensate and less about the exploited body of labourers, liberating the representation of waged bodies and further diversifying the field of Working-Class Studies.

This edited volume celebrates cutting-edge research in stylistics and, more specifically, recent work on sense and the senses. The title originated in the Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA) 2022 conference and marks the 40th onsite event by showcasing some of the excellent papers delivered on that occasion. The selected chapters fall into 4 parts each of which gives pride of place to how style makes sense and how senses make style. The chapters follow research in neuroscience and sociocognition, investigate how body and mind are inextricably linked through embodied meaning; how emotions are both conveyed and perceived; and how impressions, thoughts and worldviews can be induced by a certain style. The apprehension of the senses is carried through a variety of theories (cognitive linguistics and stylistics, ecostylistics, phenomenology, simulation theory, enactivism, metaphor theory, Text World Theory) and is applied to various genres (poetry, novels, short stories, detectivefiction, restaurant reviews) and media (the oral vs written tradition, ekphrasis, and semiotic transfers). This book will be of interest to students and academics in stylistics, cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, ecostylistics, and multimodality.

This volume, the first of a two volume set, addresses three major areas in response to the post-Anthropocene: childhood, environment and indigeneity. Each of these areas is broadly addressed in relation to the concerns that have arisen both theoretically and educationally. The author terms these to be encounters as each area presents a particular problematic when addressing the phase change that the planet is undergoing where the anthropogenic labour of global humanity is contributing to climate change, endangering our very existence. There has been a concerted effort to overcome the nature-culture divide in education. The author reviews this development in the first section where there has been a particular emphasis placed on childhood education. In the second section he turns to the pedagogical theories that are attempting to overcome this same divide in environmental and science education. The last section attempts to bring into the conversation the vast literature on Indigeneity and their attempts to revise traditional education to meet these extraordinary times.

Wine tourism has become increasingly popular and important in recent years, with a vast scientific research highlighting the expansion of the industry and the various benefits associated with it. As the global wine market grows, new competitive strategies, business tools and patterns of wine tourists' demands are essential elements for the effective management of wine tourism products. This book aims to deepen the management of the wine tourism industry through the study of competitive strategies developed by wineries. It also explores perceptions, preferences, and expectations of wine tourists, as well as the analysis of new tools to improve the wine tourism product. In doing so, contributors make the case for effective strategic management that can help wineries determine their target markets, identify their competitive advantages, develop pricing strategies and create effective marketing campaigns. The book is therefore useful for both wine professionals and academics who wish to delve deeper into the study of the strategic management of wine tourism.

This book provides an analysis of various sources and forms of systemic financial risk. It focuses on the most pressing research questions for both advanced and emerging market economies, including green finance, ESG agenda and related risks, international financial connectivity across countries and financial institutions, and catastrophic risks modeling. Part 1 considers emerging research issues in risk assessment and management, including new approaches to measuring financial development, trends and prospects of green finance, and cross-country financial spillovers. Part 2 casts a more nuanced look at the quantitative models and methods adopted in risk assessment and risk management, putting such issues as measuring catastrophic risks, liquidity mismatches as well as modeling probabilities of default and the impact of macroeconomic fundamentals on capital adequacy ratios in the Russian banking sector in the spotlight. Finally, Part 3 discusses the new regulatory challenges dealingwith risk assessment and risk management, such as macroprudential policies which have proved efficient to mitigate systemic risk are investigated. The book offers a comprehensive picture of the challenges which emerging market economies are facing in the field of financial risk assessment and management. Specifically, the challenges are discussed in the context of elaborated models and policy responses, which are based on the up-to-date theoretical contributions and empirical evidence from various fields, making the book relevant to professors, researchers, graduate students, and practitioners of risk management, international finance, and financial services.

The metaverse is undergoing rapid and transformative changes, yet it has thus far lacked a comprehensive scholarly examination from a global and comparative standpoint. The publication addresses existing gaps by introducing fresh perspectives and frameworks across various domains within the metaverse, including law, economics, and finance. Drawing upon the expertise of an international cohort of scholars and practitioners, this volume illuminates emerging interdisciplinary insights with global relevance, facilitating a comparative analysis of diverse aspects of the metaverse. Timely and essential, this book contributes significantly to the metaverse literature, addressing urgent issues in this evolving landscape.

This book sheds light on the untold stories of individual student activists at Queens College, New York City, during the 1960s. Against the backdrop of the ongoing Vietnam War and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, some Americans began to lose faith in their government. Based on injustices that students saw in their campuses, in the country, and in the world at large, they began to question their political leaders. Students organized their discontents over three major issues: civil rights, free speech, and anti-war sentiments. Their protests involved direct actions such as sit-ins, marches, picketing, and boycotts. At Queens College (QC), as the students moved away from the repressive McCarthy era of the 1950s, they began to confront and challenge those in power at the college in the 1960s. The defining characteristic of this break from the past was a student strike in 1961 in objection to the ban of controversial speakers who had been invited to campus by student clubs. The student strike of 1961 gave the activists among them a direct and immediate way to fight power on campus and to fight racism and discrimination. The author argues that student movements cannot be attributed to a single explanation, and therefore, he focuses on individual historical contexts, presenting first-person narratives from the actual participants, and tells their stories in their own voices, from their own records, and from the documents they left behind. The book identifies the QC student activists of the 1960s, exploring how and why they became activists; their activities; their achievement as activists; and what motivated them to think that they could make history themselves by confronting racism. It provides an intimate look at the students' lives and their social justice journey, beginning at Queens College and as they moved into their careers.

As a follow up to Pedagogical Encounters in the Post-Anthropocene, Volume I, this book addresses three major areas in response to the post-Anthropocene: Technology, Neurology, Quantum. Each of these areas is broadly addressed in relation to the concerns that have arisen both theoretically and educationally. As in Volume I, the author terms these to be encounters as each area presents a particular problematic when addressing the phase change that the planet is undergoing where the anthropogenic labour of global humanity is contributing to climate change, endangering our very existence. Technology in education has been a significant development. There is a concerted effort to review this development placing stress on the rise of learning machines and algorithms. In the second encounter the vast literature on neurology is addressed, especially neurodiversity and the various symptoms that have emerged in the post-Anthropocene era. The last section reviews issues related to quantum theory as this is fundamental to tensions between physics and metaphysics. The volume concludes with the author¿s own pedagogical proposal for the future.

This book is one of two volumes that examines the successes and failures of the Ghanaian Fourth Republic from a political, public administration and public policy viewpoint. Published to coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Fourth Republic, these volumes bring together leading scholars to consider the political achievements and failures that have taken place in the country since the early 1990s, and what these tell us about the state of politics and democracy in twenty-first century Ghana and beyond. This volume focuses on party politics, political communication and public policy. It assesses themes such as interest groups, electoral politics, democratization, constitutionalism, the role of the media, and gender and politics. The volume also places Ghana in a global context, demonstrating how lessons learnt from the country can be applied elsewhere around the world, and what is unique about the Ghanaian political experience. It will appeal to all those interested in public policy, public administration and African politics.

This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the different ways in which the past remains present in Western popular culture in the twenty-first century. It combines theoretical analyses with case study-based chapters focusing on examples from Britain, the US, and Germany, among other countries. In doing so, it pushes beyond a simplistic and monolithic conception of what 'nostalgia' is to allow for a more nuanced and varied conceptualisation of this phenomenon, and to also incorporate other ways of understanding the invoking or inclusion of different histories within cultural objects, formats, and practices.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of municipal amalgamation reforms in Europe. Adopting the analytical and methodological tools of comparative historical analysis, it examines how the history of local government systems has conditioned the adoption of municipal amalgamation reforms across time and space. Beginning with Sweden's early amalgamation reforms during the late 1940s and early 1950s, it assesses how the evolution of the Welfare State, decentralization, urbanization, and economic growth have all impacted amalgamation reforms in ten other European countries. The book challenges the prevailing theory that amalgamations are implemented by rational design to improve the efficiency and capacity of local governments. Instead, it argues that state sovereignty, regime changes, centralization of authority and diffusion effects are more likely causes of the adoption of municipal amalgamation reforms. It will appeal to all those interested in public administration, public policy, European politics, and local governance studies.

This book presents a comprehensive examination of how leadership and collaboration are discursively performed in professional communication, using real-world data from a UK public sector IT team. Taking an auto-ethnographic approach to workplace talk, the author examines the language involved in the performance of different team-based professional roles, examining how professional identity and relationships are indexed through casual face-to-face talk in an office environment. This investigation of how a group of people come together in an effort to achieve shared workplace goals relates to key debates in the area of professional communication, putting forward new theoretical and methodological frameworks for understanding and analysing how person-orientated aspects of professional communication shape discourses of work. This book appeals to a wide and interdisciplinary audience, including advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and researchers specialising in applied linguistics broadly, and professional communication in particular, as well as consultants and practitioners working across a wide range of professional sectors.

This book addresses the most suggestive themes of transhumanism and critical posthumanism by placing them in dialogue with classic problems of metaphysics, and with some great thinkers of the past (Bruno, Spinoza, and above all Leibniz). The main purpose of this comparison is to invite transhumanists and critical posthumanists to consider a highly complex problematic tradition rooted in the history of philosophy. This study also makes use of examples drawn from the history of mythology, angelology, and mysticism. At the same time, the book promotes dialogue between scholars of classical metaphysics and philosophy of religion, and the potential metaphysical/spiritual theories developed independently by transhumanist and posthumanist thinkers within an anti-dualist and naturalistic philosophical framework. The goal is to 'enhance' contemporary transhumanism and posthumanism by promoting the need to safeguard intelligence as a principle, without falling into the trap of a violent and egotistic metaphysics.

​This book demystifies the notion of living consciousness and aims to show that, far from being a mere accompaniment to brain functions, living consciousness defines the features of both physical objects and human artifacts. The distinction is between living consciousness, which includes subjective experiences 'here and now' (e.g., perceptions, feelings, imagination, and creative thinking) and conforms to the laws of magic, versus objectified consciousness that comprises physical (e.g., computers) and symbolic (e.g., languages and concepts) human artifacts and conforms to the laws of nature and formal logic.The magnificent success of science in the modern world has plunged many scientists into the illusion that magical events are ancient history and exist today only in art and night dreams. The illusion reached its pinnacle in the middle of the 20th century, when nuclear power stations, flights to the Moon, early computers, genetic engineering and other wonders of science made some scientists believe that there is nothing in the world that cannot be explained by science. But there was a price to pay for this scientific optimism - the scientists became blind to their living consciousness. They began looking at the world as if nature and objectified consciousness were the only things that mattered, with living consciousness being viewed as a mundane thing that accompanies brain processes but has no causal powers.This book examines how our living consciousness works, and how our understanding of this work helps in solving key problems of modern life, such as facilitating creativity, protecting from magical manipulation with minds, fighting certain kinds of crime, managing fake reality, preventing misuses in psychotherapy and other psychological practices, comprehending controversial issues in science, and tracing origins of totalitarian media narratives that trigger hatred and wars.

This book details how British Catholic communities view abortion, highlighting the diversity of positions which often contrast with the official line of Catholic Church doctrine. The authors' extensive qualitative investigation involving various Catholic constituents demonstrates the complex ways attitudes are formed. Based on interviews with priests, Catholic parishioners, anti-abortion activists and Catholics living in close proximity to activism, this book takes a lived religion approach to argue that attitudes and approaches to abortion are nuanced and contextual, with the Catholic concept of individual conscience playing a fundamental role in navigating abortion issues. Ultimately, this investigation helps to explore in much greater depth the increased liberalisation in attitudes among Catholics towards abortion, at a time when Catholic activism opposing abortion is growing, and therefore shines a light on the conflicts that are apparent at the heart of Catholic parishes. Thisbook will be of interest to scholars in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Sociology, Theology and Religious Studies.

This book is a comprehensive guide to the application of Python in accounting, finance, and other business disciplines. This book is more than a Python tutorial; it is an integrative approach to using Python for practical research in these fields. The book begins with an introduction to Python and its key libraries. It then covers real-world applications of Python, covering data acquisition, cleaning, exploratory data analysis, visualization, and advanced topics like natural language processing, machine learning, predictive analytics, and deep learning. What sets this book apart is its unique blend of theoretical knowledge and real-world examples, supplemented with ready-to-use code. It doesn't stop at the syntax; it shows how to apply Python to tackle actual analytical problems. The book uses case studies to illustrate how Python can enhance traditional research methods in accounting and finance, not only allowing the reader to gain a firm understanding of Python programming but also equipping them with the skills to apply Python to accounting, finance, and broader business research. Whether you are a PhD student, a professor, an industry professional, or a financial researcher, this book provides the key to unlocking the full potential of Python in research.

This book delves into Trinidad and Tobago's development with a fresh lens. It stands as the inaugural empirical exploration of the country's unique attributes, including its diversity, ex-British colony status, small-state categorization by population size, and its dependence on hydrocarbons.Through meticulous empirical analysis, this book scrutinizes the nation's economic, social, and political outcomes within the context of these four distinctive parameters, offering fresh insights into the country's development trajectory.What sets this book apart is its unwavering commitment to a data-driven approach. Drawing upon a vast array of databases from both international and national sources, it provides a thorough examination of development indicators, household welfare metrics, firm-level performance, and individual perspectives on a wide range of political, economic, and social issues.For scholars, policymakers, and anyone with an interest in understanding how unique contextual factors shape a Trinidad and Tobago's development, this book offers an enlightening and data-rich perspective on the nation's journey towards progress and prosperity.

This book provides a practical, detailed, and well-documented guide that takes students and market researchers through all phases of developing and conducting global marketing research. This book not only accounts for the recent developments in the scope and extent of global marketing research, but also examines advances in both quantitative and qualitative research techniques, and the impact of the Internet on research in the global environment.It includes coverage of all phases involved in designing and executing global marketing research -- from analyzing the nature and scope of the research to the preliminary stages, gathering data, designing the questionnaires, sampling, and presenting the data. Numerous country-specific examples and case studies will add to the understanding of the concepts laid out in the book. This edition features updates related to leveraging the power of AI, Internet of Things, machine learning, blockchain, robotics, the metaverse, and otheremerging technologies that are impacting the way in which marketing research is performed. With an instructor's manual as well as PPT slides covering major topics within the chapters, in addition to numerous cases, this text provides the most current and relevant information about the global marketing research industry and outlines the necessary techniques that can guide researchers in their work.

This book investigates the contemporary practices surrounding the international prosecution of sitting heads of states by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Through a specific focus on five contemporary case studies, the author reflects on the following: firstly, how the ICC itself has shaped the contemporary practices surrounding the prosecution of sitting heads of states; and secondly, the domestic and international "problematics" that have ensued from these practices. In doing so, Cacciatori argues that the international prosecution of sitting heads of states before the ICC constitutes "an imprudent exercise of Western humanitarianism". This, in turn, has not only worsened the domestic conditions of the countries subject to the ICC's investigations but in addition, it has also served to undermine the "very idea of cosmopolitan justice" in international politics.

This volume explores the family formation and life course of Polish people in Ireland, who make up the largest immigrant group in Ireland. Chapters address key dimensions of the life course in three parts focusing on childhood and youth, adulthood and parenting, and mid-life and futures. Contributions investigate the experiences of children and youth attending school and understanding their identities, the changing nature of families and family support, how families might engage with welfare institutions, and more. Through the life course approach, the book moves beyond the paradigm of studying the Polish population as economic migrants and instead analyzes and illustrates the lives of Polish families living in Ireland since EU enlargement.

Central bank digital currency (CBDC) is on the horizon, with more than 130 central banks globally considering such projects. But is this beneficial for citizens and the financial system? This book offers a comprehensive guide on the intricate subjects of CBDCs, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits. Authored by an industry expert who has actively participated in the development of CBDC solutions, this book demystifies the complexities of CBDC and digital assets, presenting both the opportunities and challenges with practical examples and real-world contexts.The book covers the history of money and the background of cryptography and technology architectures that are shaping the future of payments. It presents the risks and opportunities that these digital assets and CBDCs mean for our society. It discusses how CBDCs and stablecoins can potentially stabilize digital payment systems, offers opportunities for immediate settlements, and facilitate efficient cross-border payments. However, it also notes the significant challenges, including legal and regulatory complexities, social impacts, privacy concerns, security threats, and the risk of mass-surveillance. The book explores the different characteristics of digital assets, the options available for each characteristic (like privacy, sovereignty, ...) and provides detailed knowledge to judge the merits of the solutions proposed by private and public players.A must-read for anyone looking to understand the rapidly evolving world of digital currencies, this book encourages critical thinking about the opportunities and challenges presented by CBDCs and other digital assets and prompts readers to consider the vital aspects of privacy, security, and governance in an increasingly complex digital financial landscape.

This edited collection explores the problem of space under socialist regimes in the twentieth century. Bringing together contributions from international scholars with expertise in the architectural, urban, social, and cultural history of twentieth-century socialism, the book includes examples from China, Africa, Mongolia, Eastern Europe and the USSR. The volume reflects on how developments in the field over the past two decades have altered our understanding of how such spaces were constructed (both literally and discursively), how they could become sites of contested meanings, and how they were perceived outside the socialist world. Moreover, the volume is concerned with how scholarly approaches associated with post-colonialism, global history, gender history, and the 'temporal' and 'sensory' turns have reconfigured our knowledge of, and approach to, the history of socialist space.

This book provides detailed insight into what governments and institutions can do to drive digital transformation in a nation pursuing economic development. Drawing on real-world case studies and practical advice, the book breaks down digital transformation of public services, healthcare, and the move toward smart cities. Synthesizing publicly available information, the book captures how the World Bank transformed its response the digital revolution in several nations. Nagy K. Hanna takes takes readers through the pioneering export strategy of software services in India and Sri Lanka's first integrated digital transformation program. The resulting book is a guide for policymakers, development economists, and and change-makers seeking new ways to harness the power of digital technologies to promote inclusive and sustainable development.

In this book, Nagy K. Hanna offers a holistic framework that economists and policymakers can use to examine and drive digital transformation. The book offers detailed analyses into development policies, and organizational processes governing digital transformation learning and practice and highlights the reforms needed in countries and aid agencies to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The author offers insight to help reform major aid agencies within the economic development space. The resulting text reimagines the future of development economics.

This book outlines the main technological, legal, and operational options that liberal democratic nations have when confronting challenges in cyberspace. It offers a range of policy ideas they can adopt to make their defense stronger and deter future cyber-attacks. The author explores how liberal societies, especially those in the Western world, have so far confronted a variety of cybersecurity challenges by hackers in nondemocratic regimes like Russia and China. and zooms in on the main challenges that democratic states face in adopting strategies of cyber deterrence, and how those challenges shape their ability to actually deter hackers.

This accessibly-written textbook uses the intrinsic appeal of a story to engage students with language, and provides teachers with the background knowledge and the skills to use literature to construct lessons for their classes which integrate all four skills plus language awareness in an enjoyable way. Although a number of books and studies have examined the value of using literature to learn language, literature remains under-represented as a language learning resource. The author argues that the accumulated body of literature represents a bottomless pit of potential material, just waiting to be recognised and enjoyed. From a teacher's point of view, a lesson based on a literary work can provide an integrated approach to language development which few other approaches can match. A piece of literature can be used to develop all four skills, both receptive and productive (reading, writing, listening speaking) as well as production skills and language awareness. This book willbe an essential resource for pre-service and in-service teachers, teacher trainers, students and scholars of Applied Linguistics, Language Education, TESOL and related subjects.