This chapter explains how the Romantic gnoseology goes together with the concept of a dependent subjectivity. Indeed, the Romantics imagine their ontology as based on relationships (rather than on identity) and, consequently, the self as entangled in a mesh of reciprocal dependencies. This perspective on the Romantic gnoseology begins with the notion of ‘experiment’, which for the Romantics is a genetic method through which the subject–object dualism is undermined. Thinking of philosophy as an experiment implied, for them, accepting that the human being does not dominate nature but is instead constantly influenced by it. The deep relationship between the knower and the known is manifested in feeling, which reveals the primordial connection between subject and object and is at the core of the relational idea of the self. The relational ontology underlying the Romantic conception of feeling is even more evident in their analysis of love as a universal force that unites beings to and in the Absolute. Love designates the network of relationships constitutive of Being, of which the self is not the apex.

Drawing on a series of sixteen focus groups with Brazilian and Argentine citizens from low-income groups in four cities, this chapter documents the challenges individuals face when trying to access public health and early childhood education benefits. The chapter provides a conceptual framework for classifying citizen responses to these challenges. It argues that while some citizens exit from seeking access to public services, an important response is what the authors call "state-centric persistence": the act of repeatedly and directly engaging with government offices or officials after an initial failed attempt. The focus group narratives illustrate that this form of persistence is often necessary for successful access and that it is distinct from other options like giving up or turning to private alternatives. The chapter also uses survey data to show widespread belief in the usefulness of state-centric persistence.

From the beginning of Manin’s conjecture, higher dimensional algebraic geometry plays important roles in its foundational aspects. This is already evident in early papers in this field, for example, [BT98b], [Tsc03], and it has been more systematically used in recent papers [HTT15], [LTT18], [HJ17], [LT17], [LT19a], [Sen21], [LST22], and [LT19b]. Indeed, the key inputs in the latter are the developments of higher dimensional algebraic geometry in the last decade, that is, the minimal model program [BCHM10] and the boundedness of singular Fano varieties (BAB conjecture) [Bir19] and [Bir21]. In this chapter, we review the necessary notions and results from higher dimensional algebraic geometry and the minimal model program.

Chapter 3 analyzes the evolution over time of EU-Russia natural gas interdependence in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. It considers that popular support for trade with Russia varied widely in selected dyads regardless of material benefits. It applies the viewpoint of dominant narratives in different contexts to understand the processes of foreign policy formation and change in contexts of internal and external contestation. The chapter details two notable trends: (1) internally, ultimately dominant narratives emerge from domestic political struggles and the priorities of those norm entrepreneurs who are in a position to engage in “framing” practices for the remainder of the society; (2) externally, especially in markets such as gas where finding substitutes is difficult (due to the rigidity of trade via pipelines), new international economic opportunities can alter domestic interests and power relations among different segments of society. The study integrates responses to both (normative) local aspects and (material) international influences. Finally, a post-scriptum considers the war in Ukraine and the resulting near-termination of contested EU-Russia gas trade.

In this chapter we compute our conjectural exceptional sets constructed in Section 4.3.2 for several examples. Since the uniform bounds in Corollary 3.5.6 are not effective in general, our general proofs of Theorem 4.3.5 do not provide effective algorithms to compute these exceptional sets. Instead, we appeal to adjunction theory, which provides us with powerful and practical tools to compute them.

This chapter departs from many typical readings of Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which treat that novel’s spiritual and numinous presences, practices, and powers as fantastical or magical rather than real and efficacious. Drawing on Díaz’s own statements, I show how the novel insists on the reality of supernatural forces and on how practices of prayer and the intervention of powerful spiritual forces, such as the Mongoose, can lead to resilience and survival amid the uncertainties and traumas of Caribbean dictatorship and migration to America. Díaz’s sense of cosmic vision in the novel, an insistence that there is spiritual purpose and power at work in the cosmos, shows how syncretic religious formations in the Caribbean can empower a radical hope in the face of the seemingly traumatic and impossible.

Chapter 6 studies the effects of state support on firm internationalization. Based on an original dataset of the history of the foreign production and innovation investments of large Brazilian MNCs, it compares the internationalization trajectories of supported and non-supported MNCs before and after state support is introduced. Using a difference-in-differences design, it provides evidence of the effectiveness of state support for MNCs: Supported firms outpace non-supported firms both in access to markets (measured by number of host countries and access to free trade agreements) and knowledge (measured by the innovation ecosystems of the host countries and whether they establish a research and development center abroad). It further probes the mechanisms underlying this effect, relying on in-depth interviews with firm managers of supported firms and bank bureaucrats, the chapter shows that BNDES’ relational banking approach can explain why BNDES support generates positive results despite evidence of political considerations in allocation decisions.

Heinrich von Ofterdingen, left unfinished at the time of the author’s death, is considered one of the greatest novels of German Romanticism. Set within the late Middle Ages, it follows the journey of Heinrich, who travels from his homeland in Thuringia to Augsburg in the south. Heinrich von Ofterdingen is a highly imaginative work of philosophical fiction, exposing readers to Romantic theories of nature, history, religion, love, and poetry. This new translation offers a faithful rendition of the original German, preserving the novel’s style, syntax, and lyrical form. Detailed annotations are provided to aid both students and scholars.

Working with others is at the heart of inclusive practice. In early childhood education and care, no single professional can meet the full range of strengths, needs and identities that children bring with them. Inclusion becomes possible when educators, families and external professionals think, plan and act together with shared intent. This chapter explores what it means to build strong, respectful and coordinated partnerships across a service and beyond the gate. It positions early childhood education settings as relational spaces where collaboration supports participation, wellbeing and belonging for children with disabilities, developmental differences and neurodivergence, as well as for children and families navigating complex circumstances. Drawing on Australian frameworks and research, the chapter offers practical ways educators can participate confidently in cross-sector collaboration while holding children’s rights, agency, and cultural identities at the centre.

In southern France, the transition to the Iron Age was synonymous with major changes in Celtic societies, which partly depended on the intensity of contacts established with the Mediterranean world. These changes were marked by the emergence of a ruling class whose power was fundamentally based on control of land and communication routes. The expression of these powers that centred on notions of symbolic or real violence evolved over time. The sense of identity referenced a past embodied by emblematic figures or places and was articulated by the process of ethnogenesis that we can trace in ancient sources and archaeology.

This chapter covers descriptive statistics, the branch of statistics that summarises and presents data in a meaningful way. It outlines key measures of central tendency, including mean, median, and mode, and measures of dispersion such as range, variance, and standard deviation. Graphical methods, including histograms, boxplots, and scatterplots, are described as tools for visualising data distributions and relationships. The chapter highlights the role of descriptive statistics in providing initial insights into data, detecting patterns, and identifying potential anomalies. The importance of choosing appropriate measures based on data type and distribution is emphasised. Limitations of descriptive statistics are acknowledged, particularly their inability to draw conclusions beyond the data set or establish causality. Practical examples are provided, demonstrating how descriptive methods are used in summarising patient characteristics, reporting disease prevalence, and monitoring health service activity. The chapter concludes by positioning descriptive statistics as the foundation upon which more advanced inferential methods are built. This chapter maps to syllabus section 2.1–2.2, which require knowledge of descriptive data presentation, measures of central tendency and dispersion, and graphical methods.

This chapter focuses directly on explaining low levels of informal social control at crime hot spots. In previous chapters, informal social control was found to vary greatly across the hot spot and non-hot spot streets in our study. In this chapter, we seek to explain that variability. We find that crime and social disorder are key factors in explaining low informal social control at crime hot spots. Contrary to broken windows theory, we find that physical disorder has little impact on informal or community social control.

Collaboration is essential to inclusive practice, ensuring that children with disabilities, developmental differences and neurodivergence receive holistic, coordinated and high-quality support. A collaborative, team-based approach allows children to experience inclusive, responsive learning environments where interventions are seamlessly integrated into their everyday experiences. Research has demonstrated that when educators, allied health professionals, and families work together, children’s learning and development are enhanced, leading to greater participation, engagement and wellbeing.

This chapter identifies in George Saunders’s earlier critiques of neoliberalism in his short stories and his critique of a conservative American version of Christian hell in his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, a common project with a spiritual alternative in the Buddhist order of compassion. I offer a brief history of the Christian theology of hell and American neoliberalism to show how they share a common idea of a punitive, individualistic sense of natural order, one with a common origin point in the theology of Augustine on the divine will. First tracing the public spiritual commitments expressed by Saunders across a wide range of his interviews, I then show how his sense of the potential of literature to empower a spirituality of compassion informs Lincoln in the Bardo’s rejection of the Christian hell and the novel’s alternative vision of a world where compassion is the order of the universe.