bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The First Manifestations of the Ingenuity of Humankind and its Protection
Authors: dos Santos Fernando
Published: March 2024

This chapter traces the origins of humankind and conversely the birth of human ingenuity expressed in the development of lithic technology and science and follows its evolution and spread throughout the world. It reveals that, despite the fact that Africa was the precursor of the use of technology, the continent is lagging behind technological and scientific progress and explores the factors behind it. It further explores why the intellectual property system, which is the main driver of innovation and creativity, did not find fertile ground to put down roots in the continent to promote technological progress. The chapter illustrates that the absence of certain prerequisites led to ‘Africa conservatism’ on technological progress, such as: technological development, a conducive legal and political environment, and a philosophical set-up favourable to individual ownership of knowledge. Instead, the concomitant presence of those prerequisites in Europe encouraged intellectual property to thrive and promote technological progress.
Dynamics of the Extension of the Western-Style IP System into the African Continent
Authors: dos Santos Fernando
Published: March 2024

This chapter analyses the introduction of western-style intellectual property (IP) systems in Africa through colonization. It unearths the rationale behind the introduction of the first international IP legal instruments in Africa: the need to protect IP rights of western citizens and companies operating in the continent rather than to safeguard African interests. The chapter subscribes to the dominant view which affirms that the implementation of western-style IP regimes contributed to the marginalization of African knowledge and blocked innovative capabilities. However, the chapter also demonstrates that there may be endogenous factors impeding technological progress, as demonstrated by the fact that even after the independence of African countries from western dominance or in countries that were not colonized, such as Ethiopia and Liberia, the scenario does not follow any positive trend. Multi-pronged strategies are hence suggested to mainstream IP into the national development policies in order to promote technological progress and innovation.
Evidence from the fossil record on insect response to climate change
Authors: Currano Ellen D.
Published: March 2024

Earth’s climate has fluctuated significantly since the meteorite impact 66 million years ago that caused a mass extinction and set ecosystems on their trajectory to the modern. Both insect body fossils and insect herbivore damage preserved on fossil leaves have been used to study the effects of ancient climate changes on insect ecology, evolution and physiology. This chapter reviews insect responses to long-term Cenozoic climate trends, cyclic variations driven by orbital parameters and geologically abrupt climate events. The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (56 million years ago) provides the best ancient analog for modern anthropogenic warming and documents significant insect migrations and increased herbivory as temperature and carbon dioxide levels rose. Insects have shown resilience to past climate change yet anthropogenic climate and landscape changes are at least an order of magnitude faster than anything observed in Earth’s past, or at least anything except meteorite impacts.
Genetic and plastic responses of insects to climate change
Authors: Rohner Patrick T.
Published: March 2024

Selection on standing heritable variation and novel mutations can fuel adaptive evolutionary responses to climate change in insect morphology, behavior, physiology and life history. Although adaptation has been regarded as a slow process, more recent studies highlight that insects have the potential to adapt rapidly to climatic challenges. However, most insects also show environment-dependent trait expression (i.e., phenotypic plasticity), which can affect phenotypes within an individual’s lifetime. While such responses can be adaptive, they may also hamper evolutionary responses to environmental change. In addition, plasticity itself can evolve and bias evolution via genetic accommodation. The interactions between plastic and genetic responses are therefore manifold and complex. Integrating quantitative genetic and developmental perspectives, this chapter illustrates plastic and genetic responses of insects to climate change. Special focus is placed on the role of developmental plasticity and genetic accommodation in evolution.
Insect communities adapting to climate change
Authors: Rodríguez-Castañeda Genoveva , Hof Anouschka R.
Published: March 2024

Climate change leads to three main known responses by species: shifts in distribution following a climatic niche, adaptation to the new climatic conditions or extinction. Insect species have more resilience and adaptations to cooler temperatures than to warmer ones, which is congruent with the geological cooling period that preceded the warming of the Anthropocene. Most studies conducted along environmental gradients focus on how insect communities adapt to warmer temperatures by modeling how, based on present occurrences, they would shift to new elevations. This chapter comprehensively reviews documented changes in insect species distribution over the past twenty-five to one hundred years; this will allow us to consider the ability of montane insect communities to adapt to higher temperatures and whether temperate and tropical species are responding differently. This chapter explores how elevational range shifts affect insect communities in both temperate and tropical zones. Finally, it presents a new framework to evaluate how insects respond to the threats of climate change and habitat loss and explore ecological and microclimatic conditions in which insect communities find refuge.
Insect vectors of human pathogens in a warming world
Authors: González-Rete Berenice , Jiménez-Cortés Jesús Guillermo , Cabrera-Bravo Margarita , Salazar-Schettino Paz María , Flores-Villegas Any Laura , de Fuentes-Vicente José Antonio , Córdoba-Aguilar Alex
Published: March 2024

How do insect vectors (i.e., mosquitoes, blackflies, phlebotomines, tsetse flies, kissing bugs, lice and fleas) and their parasites which affect humanity respond to climate change? This chapter answers this question by reviewing the literature. Researchers have mainly used high temperatures as a proxy of climate change to understand such responses. These responses can be summarized as physiological (heat shock proteins, immunity), ecological (thermal thresholds, reproduction, geographical distribution) and evolutionary (life history, parasite-induced alterations, genetic variation, microbiota). Although many of these responses are species- and parasite-strain specific, it can be concluded that some vectors and parasites show positive adaptive responses to moderate increases in temperature. This represents a serious threat to humanity although more research is needed where fundamental aspects of climate change (e.g., humidity) and the interaction between hosts and vectors are included.
Hong Kong
Authors: Chen Julie , Chan Linda , Chin Weng
Published: March 2024

This chapter on medical student wellbeing in Hong Kong examines the extent of psychological distress and the mental health status of medical students in Hong Kong. It reviews the prevalence of stress, burnout, depression, and anxiety as well as protective characteristics like grit and resilience. It also discusses help-seeking behaviours among medical students and the barriers and facilitators to seeking psychological support in comparison with other settings. Finally, it shares a case example of a multilevel approach to promoting wellness in the medical school environment that addresses the needs of students in the local context that may also be useful elsewhere.
New Zealand
Authors: Moir Fiona , Usher Kristy , Wilson Hamish
Published: March 2024

The high-pressure learning environment of medical training creates considerable stressors for students. In Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, curricular, and institutional initiatives have only been partially successful in reducing distress and burnout, as the transition from layperson to doctor involves significant challenges within socialization into medical culture. Burnout may arise from ‘moral distress’, the inability to act in accord with personal values. Moral distress is a useful lens for exploring students’ early observations and initial experiences of medical values, customs, and social traditions in the clinical workplace. Moral distress can be addressed through meaningful connection with others, including contributions to patient care and carefully structured reflective practice. Well-facilitated small group work can offer valuable opportunities for students to share clinical stories, feel respected and validated, and develop emotional intelligence. Meaningful connections with peers, patients, and staff can increase students’ capacity for empathy and compassion, heighten their sense of belonging to the profession and reduce rates of imposter syndrome and burnout. However, institutional and historical barriers must be addressed if reflective practice is to be funded, timetabled, and normalized within medical culture.
Paraguay
Authors: Torales Julio , González Israel
Published: March 2024

Mental health problems remain highly stigmatized in Paraguay, not only in the general population, but also (and even more so) within the medical community. Medical students are told that they must be ‘mentally tough’ if they want to succeed in the medical field. Likewise, many medical students choose to delay or avoid seeking mental health help because they have a justifiable fear of being perceived and treated differently by peers and faculty. In this chapter, we present background information on the mental health situation of medical students in Paraguay, as well as research and interventions conducted in this area.
Portugal
Authors: Almeida Telma
Published: March 2024

In Portugal, medical students report high levels of burnout and mental ill health, higher than other students. Financial and interpersonal stressors are identified as key difficulties throughout medical school. The purpose of this chapter is to address the present background information on the mental health of medical students in Portugal, is to approach policies and reported interventions regarding student wellbeing, as well as the recent research in this area. Portuguese medical students tend not to seek help from the support services available to them mainly because of the stigma and the lack of robust interventions that are effective in identifying mental disease and promoting mental health. It is crucial to address this subject in future studies and mental health campaigns, to promote student wellbeing and provide students with the coping tools to deal with stress throughout their training and professional life in order to safeguard the future generation of doctors.
How Can Universities and Health Systems Look After Medical Students?
Authors: Kemp Evie
Published: March 2024

In How Can Universities and Health Systems Look After Medical Students? the author draws upon her expertise in occupational medicine to present a practical framework to help organizations approach the topic of wellbeing in medical education. This chapter outlines a three-level model to assess and prevent risks to health in the workplace, utilizing primary, secondary, and tertiary preventative interventions, with the aim of reducing stress and improving resilience. This includes performing medical school stress risk assessments, appointing a director of health and wellbeing, delivering a health and wellbeing module for students using an occupational and lifestyle medicine approach, and providing access to confidential support services. Medical schools have a responsibility to proactively work to overcome the barriers preventing students from seeking help, including the stigma of mental health challenges, and should promote a culture where it is both normal and appropriate for students and faculty members to access support.
How Can Medical Students Look After Themselves?
Authors: Collini Anna , Elton Caroline
Published: March 2024

‘How can medical students look after themselves’ outlines how medical students can improve their own wellbeing, whilst acknowledging the significant challenges they face due to systemic and cultural influences. This chapter considers what we mean by wellbeing, and the need to look beyond the traditional view of wellbeing as an absence of mental distress. Four different domains are discussed—mental, physical, social, and integrated wellbeing. Ways to enhance wellbeing are considered, these include creating spaces for the sharing of difficult experiences, mindfulness, practising gratitude, exercise, healthy eating, good sleep hygiene, and connecting with others. Potential sources of support are highlighted, including university support services, psychological support, peer support, and social networks. The factors that contribute to student reluctance to ask for help and use the services available to them are also discussed.
Aiming for Fulfilment
Authors: Gengoux Grace W. , Martin Yamilka Alsina , Zalpuri Isheeta
Published: March 2024

Aiming for Fulfilment describes several foundational considerations related to enhancing professional fulfilment for medical students, including common motivations for pursuing a career in medicine, existing structures which can encourage medical students to make early, meaningful contributions to their field, and the role that resilience and self-valuation play in preventing physician burnout. We review the importance of professional fulfilment for physicians in the short-term as well as in the long-term and some of the specific challenges and opportunities during the initial training years of medical school. The role of professional networks in providing mentorship and sponsorship for trainees is also discussed. Finally, the chapter provides a brief overview of some of the individual-focused as well as system-focused interventions which have been proposed or piloted for promoting the wellbeing and professional fulfilment of medical students.
The Woman, the Man, the Text
Authors: Rehman Sofia
Published: March 2024

This chapter offers an introduction to Aisha, focusing particularly on three key instructive moments in her life: her age at marriage to Muhammad, the slander against her, and the Battle of the Camel in which she led an army against the new caliph, Ali. These are important as they grant us an understanding of Aisha as a person cleansed of the sanitized versions of her character presented as the ideal Muslim women from a patriarchal lens. It also introduces the Mamluk scholar Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi and his text al-Ijaba, offering a biography of the author and insight into the uniqueness of the text in its time and the aspirations al-Zarkashi had for it.
Thinking Translation
Authors: Rehman Sofia
Published: March 2024

This chapter provides a translation methodology for the translation of the ḥadīth tradition. It expounds on the author’s experience of not being to locate a methodology for ḥadīth translation, even though ḥadīth have been translated into English for decades, if not centuries. This required effort in developing a methodology that was clearly definable and that could be replicated by other translators in the future. It also explains which part of the original text of al-Ijaba has been translated and offers a justification for this selection. The justification is that those selections cover the full range of themes covered in the original text and many of the untranslated texts are, in fact, repetitions of those which are included within the selected portion.
Aisha the Compassionate
Authors: Rehman Sofia
Published: March 2024

This chapter presents a translation and analysis of the only outlier in al-Ijaba as it is the only statement in which Aisha is responding to a female companion, Fatima bint Qays, and is also not a refutation of Fatima’s statement but a restricting of its legal implications. Fatima experienced a divorce in which the Prophet made certain exceptions in her case regarding provision of abode and financial support during her waiting-period. She argued for it to be taken as a normative practice while Aisha disagreed. It is a wonderful example of Aisha’s ethic of care and is used to argue for an ethic of care to be exercised as illustrated in this example and others previously already discussed in the scrutiny of ḥadīth and in the resultant legal formulations.
The Shape and Structure of Entrepreneurial and Innovative Places
Authors: Borchhardt Geoffrey , Sorenson Olav
Published: March 2024

Interactions primarily occur between those living and working in close proximity to one another. This chapter explores some consequences of that fact for places. It offers three principal propositions: (1) compact buildings, neighbourhoods, and cities, and denser places, should promote higher rates of entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth because they reduce the costs of interaction; (2) more integrated places should also promote entrepreneurship and innovation, because the average person in those places interacts with a more diverse set of others; (3) as people in a place become more segregated or unevenly distributed they increasingly diverge, as a function of the place where they live and work, in their propensities to innovate and to found firms.
The Deep Historical Roots of Industrial Culture and Regional Entrepreneurship
Authors: Fritsch Michael , Greve Maria , Wyrwich Michael
Published: March 2024

We describe and compare the development trajectories of two German regions, South Saxony and Mecklenburg, with a special focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. South Saxony has a long history of self-employment and knowledge generation that results in a persistent culture of innovative entrepreneurship. Mecklenburg has a tradition in large-scale agriculture. The population density in the region is rather low. The knowledge infrastructure and entrepreneurial activity in the manufacturing sector is much less developed than in South Saxony. Differences between entrepreneurial ecosystems in the two regions are especially related to the level of knowledge production and its link to new business formation in innovative and knowledge-intensive industries. Contrasting the two regions reveals the long-term impact that history can have on entrepreneurship and innovation.
Indispensable Fictions?
Authors: Harrison Richard T. , Rocha Augusto
Published: March 2024

Biological analogies and images are not altogether novel in entrepreneurship and can be powerful vehicles for carrying and communicating meaning. Nowhere is this seen more clearly or extensively than in the ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’ metaphor, used increasingly over the past fifteen years to refer to regional (and other) agglomerations of economic activity. However, it is being argued that research to date fails to explore to the fullest potential the application of the ecosystem metaphor. In this chapter we examine these claims within the context of a wider discussion of the epistemic power of metaphor as the creation of meaning by seeing one thing in terms of, or as if it were, another, recognizing that in seeking to explain the unfamiliar we inevitably resort to the familiar and everyday, as new concepts do not come to us ‘ready-made’. We argue that much of the entrepreneurial ecosystems literature is characterized by a naive descriptive empiricism and that the concept itself is more a chaotic conception than a rational abstraction. We distinguish among a number of categories of metaphor and conclude that much of the extant literature is characterized by pedagogical and constrictive metaphors, the superficiality of which will constrain the development of the field. We conclude with a discussion of the multidimensionality of the ecosystem concept itself and the different ways this can be used as meaning, model, and metaphor, and discuss the implications for future research on entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Conclusions
Authors: Rathgeb Philip
Published: March 2024

The final chapter summarizes the five main analytical lessons derived from the previous empirical chapters and reflects on their political implications and avenues of future research. My five concluding theses are as follows: (1) Sociocultural values shape the socio-economic policies of the radical right. (2) Working-class support does not turn the radical right against inequality. (3) The radical right’s nativism promotes variations of welfare chauvinism, economic nationalism, and trade protectionism in response to globalization. (4) The radical right’s authoritarianism undermines the social investment welfare state through variations of familialism and insider protection in response to liberal value change. (5) The radical right uses the welfare state to facilitate democratic backsliding.
Conclusion
Authors: Ladkin Sam
Published: March 2024

The conclusion describes the dynamics of O’Hara’s mannerist style, its sustaining tension and attitudes, even its spuriousness. The conclusion recognizes O’Hara’s life-affirming stylistic faultiness, its lack of consistency, including as a form of resistance to the dutiful machinery of composition and close reading in New Criticism. The conclusion reinforces the influence and compatibility of dance as well as painting for O’Hara’s poetry, both Fred Astaire’s ‘outlaw style’ and George Balanchine’s mid-century modernist Mannerism. O’Hara’s period is aligned with the ‘deviance studies’ of 1950s ethnography and sociology, focalized through Erving Goffman, and projected forwards into the more utopian queer theory of the latter part of the century.
Introduction
Authors: Schierbaum Sonja , Walschots Michael , Walsh John
Published: March 2024

This is an introductory chapter to the volume Christian Wolff’s German Ethics: New Essays. The chapter begins by situating the German Ethics within the history of ethics and suggests that Wolff has been unjustly neglected in this discussion. It then outlines Wolff’s life and key works, while highlighting the attention he gave to practical philosophy throughout his life. The chapter sketches the influence and impact of Wolff’s philosophy, focusing on his early German works and his ethics. This is followed by an outline of the structure and content of the German Ethics. The chapter concludes with a brief summary of the volume’s sixteen chapters.
Wolff’s Modern Stoicism
Authors: Buchenau Stefanie
Published: March 2024

This chapter aims to reconstruct the original historical context and roots of Wolff’s German Ethics by paying attention to how we might situate Wolff in a modern Stoic tradition. The chapter also seeks to locate the place of the German Ethics within Wolff’s project of a universal practical philosophy. It argues that Wolff’s ethics embraces a variety of philosophical ambitions, similar to earlier Stoic ethics. While still offering an individual ethics (1) teaching how to lead a good life and attain true freedom, such ethics is part of (2) a broader political and (3) cosmopolitical project. The chapter concludes by briefly addressing some difficulties facing Wolff’s approach, as well as by emphasizing its originality and relation to Kant.
Cross-Party Politics in Britain, 1945-2019
Authors: Wager Alan
Published: March 2024

British politics has long been conceived of as fundamentally a majoritarian, two-party game with single party government the received norm. Yet—from the immediate post-war period through to the drama of Brexit—parties and politicians in the UK have mooted the idea of coalitions and inter-party agreements for mutual benefit. Cross-Party Politics in Britain, 1945–2019 takes a historical-comparative look at seven such cases from the last eighty years. By retracing tales of failure as well as examples of successful cross-party co-operation, this book examines moments overlooked by historians of contemporary Britain, and most are examined through the lens of political science for the first time. Piecing together internal papers and memos from the archives as well as interviews with many of the key players, two questions are explored. Even when from the outside it appears rational to do so, why are politicians so often swimming against the tide when trying to co-operate with their competitors? And, despite the challenges imposed by the Westminster Model, what is it that motivates those that try? The answers to these questions put recent developments in British politics into historical perspective, provide new cases of inter-party co-operation for comparative scholars of inter-party relations, as well as giving clues as to what might happen when the idea of co-operation rears its head once again as the next UK general election approaches.
The Formation of the SDP and the Alliance, 1979–1981
Authors: Wager Alan
Published: March 2024

The alliance between the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Liberals, formed in 1981, is a case of a pre-electoral coalition successfully created between two distinct political parties. It followed a splintering from the Labour Party by social democrats—led by former Labour frontbenchers David Owen, Shirley Williams, and Bill Rodgers, and joined by Roy Jenkins, recently returned from a spell as president of the European Commission. Yet, as the SDP was being built, it was far from certain such a comprehensive agreement with the Liberal Party would be supported—and this disagreement over the relationship with the Liberals was the central tension at the heart of the project to ‘break the mould’ of British politics.
The Cross-Party Politics of Brexit, June 2017–December 2019
Authors: Wager Alan
Published: March 2024

Between 2015 and 2019 the UK experienced one referendum, two elections, and three prime ministers. The Conservative Party retained power throughout, in no small part due to its ability to draw on the parliamentary backing of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) after the 2017 general election and the electoral support of an agreement with the Brexit Party in December 2019. Throughout 2019, as the Brexit debate came to a head, members of parliament (MPs) across all political parties—but particularly those opposed to Brexit—came together through sustained, informal forms of cross-party co-operation. The prospect of this translating into a ‘Government of National Unity’ that would ultimately be needed to resist Boris Johnson’s harder form of Brexit, or even to reverse the result entirely, was always unlikely. However, the idea that these opposition MPs were intent on frustrating Brexit was central to Johnson’s anti-parliament appeal in the general election that followed.
Regulatory Objectives
Authors: Jastrzębski Jacek
Published: March 2024

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss financial stability as a regulatory objective of a European capital markets codification. It presents the definition of financial stability, discusses the question of the universality of financial stability as a regulatory objective, and examines the relevance of financial stability as one of the regulatory objectives of securities law and its interplay with other regulatory objectives. The question is whether the regulatory objectives—financial stability, investor protection, market efficiency—are aligned and synergetic, so that there is no need to address any question that may arise in connection with a conflict or whether such conflicts may arise and should be anticipated and addressed by lawmakers. The conclusion is that, while there may be no conflict in an abstract approach, such conflicts may arise in concrete real-life settings and must be resolved by regulators and supervisors. In the later parts of this chapter, the process of normativization of the concept of financial stability in European financial regulations and the Short Selling Regulation as a financial market regulation that prioritizes financial stability over other regulatory objectives are presented.
Sustainability and ESG Aspects
Authors: Spießhofer Birgit
Published: March 2024

The codification of the European Capital Markets Code (ECMC) must deal with sustainability and ESG (Environment, Social, Governance). It should take into consideration the following recommendations: (1) The ECMC should reference but not include the issues regulated in the NFRD/CSRD, the SRD II, the Draft CSDD Directive, and the Taxonomy Regulation. (2) The ECMC should refrain from a general ‘definition’ of sustainability/ESG but include a description. It should follow a context specific conceptual approach. Insofar as investments and the fostering of exogenous sustainability is concerned it should make clear that it follows a holistic and balanced ESG conception. (3) The General Part of the ECMC should describe sustainability and ESG as key concepts and stipulate sustainability/ESG as a separate goal that must be taken into consideration in the creation and implementation of Capital Markets policies. The ECMC should mention that capital markets shall foster and support the realization of sustainability goals. (4) The Special Parts of the ECMC should deal with the specific issues and questions concerning the adequacy of instruments and level and intensity of regulation. It may be advisable to favour guiding principles, frameworks, ‘breathing’ and ‘smart’ regulation for the ECMC to be permeable for the dynamic international, as well as scientific and political developments. Detailed European hard law is not necessarily the best way to foster European and international sustainable development.
DLT-based Instruments in the Context of Securities Definitions
Authors: Casper Matthias , Leopold Patrick
Published: March 2024

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) has become a vital technological tool for digital transformation worldwide. This chapter examines the regulation of DLT in the context of European capital markets law and its definition as a security. It examines whether DLT is already regulated as a security in the traditional sense and finds that the current legal situation is sufficient. However, a definition of DLT in the context of Article 4 MiFID II would be helpful. The chapter also analyses the forthcoming EU MiCA regulation and its impact on DLT in the context of securities regulation and its relationship to current securities legislation. It provides a brief comparative overview of various approaches to regulating DLT and shows that a technology-neutral approach is preferred, even if DLT has often inspired the formulation of a universal definition. It argues that the definition of DLT in a European Capital Markets code should be separated from the definition of traditional securities and should be open to new technologies. Overall, the chapter emphasizes the importance of developing a flexible and adaptable definition of DLT that can keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies.
Long-run rural livelihood diversification in Kagera
Authors: Dimova Ralitza , Halvorsen Sandra Kristine , Nyyssölä Milla , Sen Kunal
Published: March 2024

What drives livelihood diversification among rural households in developing countries and how can welfare-enhancing patterns be established and sustained in the long run? The large literature on whether income diversification is a means of survival or a means of accumulation remains inconclusive. The authors first test the survival versus accumulation hypothesis using a panel of households in Tanzania from the 1990s. They then verify whether the underlying pattern is sustained in the longer run (2004) while also studying the role of infrastructural improvements and entry into new income-generation activities. Their results support the accumulation hypothesis, namely the greater income diversification among richer households, in both the 1990s and 2004. At the same time, households that started poorer are found to improve their income status by diversifying into off-farm self-employment activities. Factors that explain these improvements include access to a daily market and public transport.
Gender disparities in financial inclusion in Tanzania
Authors: Were Maureen , Odongo Maureen , Israel Caroline
Published: March 2024

Although Tanzania has made notable progress in expanding access to financial services, the gender gap in financial inclusion still remains. This chapter examines gender disparities in financial inclusion in Tanzania using exploratory and regression analyses. While the advent of mobile phone money services has led to increased financial inclusion, women still lag behind in access to and utilization of formal financial services. Based on FinScope Tanzania survey data for 2017, the empirical results show that women—especially married women—are less likely to access mobile money services and banking services compared with men. Similarly, women are less likely to save and borrow compared with men, with a higher percentage opting to keep cash at home or save with a saving group. The gender gaps in financial inclusion are attributable to factors such as lack of income, limited financial literacy, and lack of access to smartphones. As the economy continues to embrace a digital economy in light of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for inclusive and gender-sensitive policies so as to enhance the economic resilience and effective participation of women. These include enhancing digital financial services across board, improving women’s education and financial literacy, and promoting saving groups.
China’s Economic Diplomacy in the Western Balkans
Authors: Crawford Nicholas
Published: March 2024

China’s economic diplomacy in the Western Balkans is altogether less ambitious and less influential than is often feared by European policymakers and analysts. It resembles organized economic opportunism more closely than a grand economic or political plan. Chinese loans and investments serve as short-term political inducements, but Beijing has made little attempt to establish the structural linkages with Western Balkan states that would cement its long-term influence there. Nevertheless, China’s economic diplomacy has given Western Balkan governments the opportunity to dispense with European liberal norms—both in domestic governance and in foreign policy—when it suits their domestic politics or offers leverage in relations with the European Union, and Serbia has taken particular advantage of this opportunity.
Nuclear Dreams or Nightmares?
Authors: Davidescu Simona
Published: March 2024

Building on the conceptual framework of this volume, this chapter focuses on Chinese investments in the nuclear power sector, considered crucial for national sovereignty. The chapter examines how despite initial positive signals, both Romanian and UK governments have attempted to remove Chinese investments from this sector, albeit at a different pace and with different supporting coalitions of actors, after a highly politicized process. This chapter highlights the role of domestic actors and how domestic political considerations can be altered in the face of external pressure and changing geopolitical contexts. The chapter also shows the absence of a coherent design or similar patterns in the way Chinese national energy companies such as CGN approach their investments in Europe in the nuclear power sector.
Epistemic Courage
Authors: Ichikawa Jonathan
Published: March 2024

Epistemic Courage, by Jonathan Ichikawa, argues that many mainstream ideas about what to believe encode a bias towards the skeptical: we devote a lot of thought and attention to the possible mistake of believing things when we shouldn’t; we ought, Ichikawa argues, to think much more than we do about the possible mistake of not believing things when we should. Mistaken suspension of judgment can be just as irrational, and just as morally and politically unfortunate, as mistaken belief can. Widespread assumptions to the contrary, Ichikawa says, encode a conservative political ideology, motivating an undue deference for the status quo. Throughout the book, Ichikawa uses a wide range of engaging and timely examples to illustrate his points, focusing both on everyday practical cases and on morally weighty and politically controversial ones, like conspiracy theories, medical misinformation, and rape culture. Epistemic Courage demonstrates that epistemology is no mere academic abstraction—the question of what to believe couldn’t be more urgent.
Skepticism, Caution, and Conservatism
Authors: Ichikawa Jonathan
Published: March 2024

This chapter observes that epistemological thought—both in formal academic study and in popular ideas about belief and knowledge—has a tendency towards skepticism, emphasizing reasons not to believe far greater than reasons to believe. Epistemology is ultimately about the project balancing the importance of forming good beliefs against that of avoiding bad ones; both are important, but the latter, the chapter argues, gets undue emphasis. This negative tendency has implications that are conservative in Edmund Burke’s sense, furthering a kind of status-quo bias. One acts on the basis of what one believes, and one’s actions are only good to the extent that the beliefs on which they’re based are proper. Since action requires good belief, so skeptical modes of thought tend to motivate inaction. The epistemic bias towards the negative thus reinforces a political bias towards the conservative. Both biases, this chapter argues, deserve critical interrogation.
Positive Epistemology and the Duty to Believe
Authors: Ichikawa Jonathan
Published: March 2024

This chapter generalizes Chapter 1’s critique of a bias towards skepticism, focusing on a broader negative bias in normative epistemology. Epistemic norms are requirements about belief. The chapter argues that there are both negative epistemic norms, prohibiting belief in some circumstances, and positive epistemic norms which mandate it. There is a negative bias in epistemology, with too much focus on the negative norms; this is evident, among other places, in epistemological discussions of misinformation and conspiracy theories. The chapter rebuts influential arguments, for example from Mark Nelson, against the idea of positive epistemic norms, and closes with a discussion of negative epistemology as an ideology, serving to entrench harmful features of culture under a guise of objectivity.
Skepticism and Rape Culture
Authors: Ichikawa Jonathan
Published: March 2024

This chapter gives a case study about testimony and rape culture, illustrating ways that the negative epistemic bias often works to preserve oppressive features of the status quo. It argues that testimonial cases often generate obligations to believe, and interrogates the tendency to treat testimony about sexual harassment and assault as less conclusive than testimony about other matters. Reflexive skepticism about many sexual harassment and assault reports enjoys an unearned presumption and a stereotype of measured reasonability, perpetuating sexist harm. It does this in part via general negative biases in epistemology, and in part via skeptical tropes specific to rape culture: the idea of a “he-said–she-said” situation, for instance. Correcting the skeptical errors here is no simple matter; an overcorrection towards reflexively accepting such reports would commit the opposite epistemic error, and also contribute to oppression (especially racism). Epistemic courage in this domain requires intersectional wisdom.
Coda: Turning Inside
Authors: Griffiths Paul
Published: March 2024

This short coda returns to a few of the most critical themes in this book so readers leave it with them in mind. The first of these is anti-ambiguity and the need for ‘precise’ and ‘exact’ information and quantification for what was called ‘certainty’ and the hope of being in the know and therefore in control. John Howes’s gushing first history of the five London ‘hospitals’ opened in 1546–53 that was published in 1582 is used—along with words from its 1904 editor—to show for one last time the process through which a ‘survey’ or ‘searche’ created information. Middling office holders in local government were England’s first political arithmeticians if by that term we mean using information in practical ways to make government more effective. This was ‘turning inside’ when local magistrates put their faith in information systems that in their procedures and range were innovative and institutions that were distinctive in their numbers and purposes. This might not have been close to complete by the end of the seventeenth century, but it was clearly evident. These changes were incremental rather than abrupt. Nothing displaced something else. ‘Private’ and ‘public’ penalties, for example, coexisted for centuries. ‘Manifestaccon’ still mattered after 1700. Black sheep were still punished outside; civic panoramas were still draped with insignia. Public processions still strut along England’s streets today, but no longer with the urgent political intentions of yesteryear through which authority and the regulation of populations, resources, and environments depended to an extent that is inconceivable now.
Internal Displacement in the Global North
Authors: Buxton Rebecca
Published: March 2024

Most internal displacement occurs in the Global South, at least according to our usual ways of measuring and conceptualizing forced movement. However, some scholars outside of political philosophy have begun to attend to displacement in affluent and powerful countries as well. This chapter aims to consider internal displacement in the Global North and asks whether we ought to broaden our thinking on who counts as an internally displaced person (IDP). First, the author shows that, according to our best interpretation of internal displacement, forced movement is already ubiquitous within states in the Global North. Second, the author considers why such labels have not been applied in affluent countries, focusing on the case of Hurricane Katrina in the United States, where there was intense debate about ‘proper labelling’. Finally, the author considers what it might mean to expand the idea of internal displacement, and whether it would really affect the lives of those we theorize about.
A Total Synesthetic Experience
Authors: Hayes Kelly E.
Published: March 2024

Making an invisible, yet intersubjectively-shared, world feel real and relevant to people’s lives requires constant effort. It requires training and practice. It requires the practitioner to develop a way of knowing that unites sensory perception, cognition, feeling, and emotion with the individual’s own repository of memories, and lived history. This chapter examines how the master narrative of the Journey of the Jaguars gives rise to a vividly detailed imagined world that Valley members enter fully via their physical senses and imagination. It traces how Valley members come to see themselves as Jaguars through a two-prong process of: (a) inner sense cultivation in mediumistic training; and (b) multisensory immersion within the Valley’s material culture of vestments, architecture, images, symbols, songs, and so forth.
Westside LA
Authors: Devienne Elsa
Published: March 2024

Chapter 1 narrates the history of mass leisure from a less frequently considered West Coast perspective. It shows how the urbanization of the coastline in the 1920s and 1930s and local developers’ savvy promotional strategies produced the Westside, an attractive neighborhood where a hybrid lifestyle, both suburban and resortlike, took shape. The coast’s proximity to Hollywood, LA’s special relationship with Hawaii and the surfing culture, and the regional “cult of the body” contributed to the emergence of a unique beach culture centered on beauty, fashion, and body performance. By the end of the 1930s, Southern California had pioneered a new model of seaside leisure, inspiring beach cultures well beyond the region.
A Troubled Seaside Order
Authors: Devienne Elsa
Published: March 2024

Chapter 2 interrogates the beach as an urban public space where rules and regulations (whether formal or informal) were the subject of constant negotiations and, occasionally, violent confrontations. As the small resorts of the early twentieth century turned into residential communities in the 1920s and 1930s, a local elite sought to bring order to the seaside and reintroduce some semblance of class segregation to the beach. Setting up exclusive beach clubs did draw some lines in the sand, but new ordinances restricting certain behaviors were often ignored or unenforced. Racial segregation became more entrenched starting in the 1920s, and multiple attempts by middle-class African Americans to establish beach clubs and private establishments near the shoreline were squashed. By the early 1940s, the beach was not as strictly policed and regulated as other public spaces in the city due to lack of officers and the sheer expanse of land to patrol. But race continued to determine which spaces beachgoers could hope to enjoy without fear of harassment.
Gender
Authors: Rubio Julie Hanlon
Published: March 2024

Chapter 6 takes on a second hard case—the difficult issue of gender. Third-wave feminism owes a great deal to ideas about the social construction of gender and has more recently moved toward understanding sex (or gender identity) as similarly constructed. In contrast, traditionally, Catholics have read theological meaning in differently sexed bodies, which is especially apparent in the popular “theology of the body” associated with St. John Paul II. In the face of significant divides between some contemporary feminists and Catholics, I ask whether feminists and Catholics, both of whom affirm the importance and limits of embodiment, can think together about how and how much gender matters. After acknowledging deeply diverging ideas about gender, the chapter maps three possible lines of convergence as starting points for Catholic feminist conversation.
The History of the “History of Ideas” in Latin America and Its Critics
Authors: Palti Elías J.
Published: March 2024

Chapter 1 analyzes the origins of the “History of Ideas” in Latin America and how it became established as a scholarly discipline around the mid-twentieth century. The crucial question around which, from then on, the entire discipline would revolve has been: how to render meaningful study ideas which have a “derivative” character, according to Leopoldo Zea’s definition, mere adaptations of foreign conceptual matrixes? Every study in the field entailed an answer to that question. The chapter analyzes the different proposals by the different schools unraveling its conceptual tenets and discusses why they ultimately failed in their goal of finding any distinguishing feature of ideas in the region. This is ultimately revealing of deeper epistemic problems. As the chapter shows, the theoretical frameworks themselves of this tradition of history of ideas prevented it.
“Broke . . . All Up”: The Ends and Afterlives of the Wartime Slave Trade
Authors: Colby Robert K.D.
Published: March 2024

Chapter 7 concludes the story of the wartime slave trade by looking at its final days and tracing slave commerce’s influence into Reconstruction. Drawing heavily on the words and experiences of people bought and sold during the war, it follows their efforts to reverse the effects of the slave trade—to find family and lost loved ones and to counter its detrimental impact on education, labor, and other aspects of Black life in the postbellum South. Formerly enslaved people used an emerging relationship with the US government to advance these efforts and leveraged the slave trade rhetorically to make fresh claims on the nation. In many ways, they succeeded. The end of the slave trade did much to define the changes wrought by the Civil War. But its effects nevertheless lingered well into the war’s aftermath and helped shape the ways in which people encountered and experienced freedom.
Lecture, Delivered at the Franklin Hall, Boston, Sept. 21, 1832.
Authors: Jones Douglas A.
Published: March 2024

In this lecture, Stewart surveys the condition of free African Americans and concludes it is barely above conditions associated with slave labor. Admitting the prospects in American society are bleak, she calls on black men and women to motivate themselves to reach higher economic and social attainments. She calls on white women to treat their black counterparts the way they wish to be treated.