This book argues that a resilient region should act reactively and proactively in the face of shocks and disruptions and asserts that the institutionalization of regional cooperation may be the answer to development challenges in times of uncertainty and instability. It considers regional, transregional, and subregional cooperation initiatives for building regional resilience and critically ex…
Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this book discusses the potential of social innovation in the pursuit of social justice in Africa. In the twenty-first century, social innovation and entrepreneurship have attracted renewed attention as a way of promoting social justice and addressing challenges of poverty and inequality. Drawing on perspectives from human rights, economics, business, dev…
The world food crisis (1972–1975) gave rise to new development concepts. To eradicate world hunger, small peasants were supposed to use ‘modern’ inputs like high-yielding seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and irrigation. This would turn subsistence producers into business owners, transform rural areas, invigorate national economies and the crisis-stricken world economy and thus stabilize capi…
The “digital economy” is a conceptual umbrella referring to markets, organizations and their networks that are based on digital technologies, communication, data processing and e-commerce. It is multidimensional and its dynamic structure must be analysed from various dimensions, such as economic – changes in the nature of resources, production factors and economic processes; technological…
This book provides an important new analytical framework for making sense of return, remigration and circular mobility, conceptualising them as different phases of a wider migration process. Using an in-depth case study of Albania and its two main destination countries, Italy and Greece, the book demonstrates that instead of being viewed as a linear path between origin and destination, migra…
The Performative Power of Vocality offers a fresh perspective on voice as a subject of critical inquiry by employing an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach. Conventional treatment of voice in theatre and performance studies too often regards it as a subcategory of actor training, associated with the established methods that have shaped voice pedagogy within Western theatre schools,…
This book presents the changing roles of urban governments and how local governments struggle to gain administrative, fiscal, and political power to combat current urban challenges in Kazakhstan. Focusing on the cities and regions selected by the national government of Kazakhstan to be the drivers of national economic development, the author analyses the impact of decentralization on the rol…
This book presents a new perspective on how Russia projects itself to the world. Distancing itself from familiar, agency-driven International Relations accounts that focus on what ‘the Kremlin’ is up to and why, it argues for the need to pay attention to deeper, trans-state processes over which the Kremlin exerts much less control. Especially important in this context is mediatization, defi…
Fragile states pose major development and security challenges. Considerable international resources are therefore devoted to state-building and institutional strengthening in fragile states, with generally mixed results. This volume explores how unpacking the concept of fragility and studying its dimensions and forms can help to build policy-relevant understandings of how states become more res…
This open access book addresses challenges related to women in STEM in higher education, presenting research, experiences, studies, and good practices associated with the engagement, access, and retention of women in the STEM disciplines. It also discusses strategies implemented by universities and policymakers to reduce the existing gender gap in these areas. The chapters provide an overview o…