From the mid-eighties of the last century, the neoliberal economic model, devised by the anti-collectivist theorists,1 which conceptually elevates competition as a high principle, has been favoured by the ruling classes. It remains nothing but a social Darwinist contrivance for accumulation by dispossession (Harvey 2004). Since the collapse of the Soviet system, it has become almost the default model sans alternative. The endemic crises it entails and the alienation it engenders necessitate increasingly authoritative responses and demagogic strategies from the rulers, using existing social divisions in the form of castes, religions, ethnicities, and so on, which lead to the fascization of societies.

While this trend is visible everywhere today, some countries have congenial ideological resources for the fascization of their societies. India, with a hegemonic Brahminist ideology (with its hierarchical ethos and the organizational dominance of its hegemons in the state apparatus as well as in civil society) is uniquely positioned. While fascization has been discernible since the 1990s in the overt majoritarian communalism whipped up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it was somewhat muted by the lack of political consensus and the moral scruples of constitutional decencies.

Weight distribution of LDPC codes: More advanced topics on LDPC codes are covered by Chapter 5, which is focused on structural properties of these codes related to their weight distributions. This chapter addresses weight distributions of unstructured and partially structured LDPC code ensembles as well as weight distribution exponents. It also addresses ensemble expurgation and minimum distance analysis for LDPC codes.

Theatrical performance engages with the material consequences of rising hot temperatures and severe bush fires as it continues to reflect changing beliefs about the weather. Verbatim theatre outlines some of the contradictions surrounding fire, which both regenerates and destroys as it conveys the gradual realisation that fire changes weather. Theatre points to how temperature-reducing tree preservation paradoxically becomes blamed for increasing the bush fire risk. The discussion foregrounds the clash of values in a liberal democratic society between the ongoing exploitation of environmental resources for economic gain and the longstanding efforts of activists and protestors to protect forests that store carbon and counteract rising temperatures. As characters and personae confront the life and death dilemmas posed by hot weather and fire including those from the social risk of arson, theatrical performance must grapple with ethical constraints surrounding the depiction of these events that cause fatalities.

Typologies are well-established analytic tools in the social sciences. They can be “put to work” in forming concepts, refining measurement, exploring dimensionality, and organizing explanatory claims. Yet some critics, basing their arguments on what they believe are relevant norms of quantitative measurement, consider typologies old-fashioned and unsophisticated. This critique is methodologically unsound, and research based on typologies can and should proceed according to high standards of rigor and careful measurement. These standards are summarized in guidelines for careful work with typologies, and an illustrative inventory of over 100 typologies is included at the end of the chapter.

Many jurisdictions around the world, which came to be known as “tax havens,” offered refuge against the high mid-century tax rates. Some individual taxpayers physically moved to these havens, which were primarily located in small, resource poor, countries whose primary source of commerce was from tourism because of their exotic locales. Corporations used techniques to shift profits to these tax haven jurisdictions while remaining based in the U.S. In either case, not only would the profits and income earned be free from tax in these jurisdictions, but because they were sourced there it would shield them from tax in the U.S. until the money was repatriated. These tax havens were portrayed in marketing materials and in the media in a way that deliberately associated the tax savings with the pristine beaches or snow-capped mountain ski resorts of the countries that hosted them, making the whole enterprise of tax dodging seem glamorous and exciting to the average taxpayer reading about them. Even though they were but a mirage for these average taxpayers, they inspired envy rather than resentment, which helped to normalize and spur interest in tax dodging among the middle class.

This chapter presents a set of practical, classroom-tested exercises for teaching concept analysis, emphasizing how deliberate engagement with concepts improves research and communication. It outlines several strategies, including reconceptualizing familiar terms by identifying defining and elective attributes, and situating them within semantic fields. It highlights the heuristic power of Collier’s question, “What is that a case of?”, which prompts students to move from empirical examples to abstract categories. Taxonomy construction is another key tool, helping students systematize ideas across domains – from constitutions to cuisine – and understand how classification affects knowledge. Binary sorting (“There are two kinds of people…”) and genre-mapping (“What do you work on?”) also serve to stimulate reflection on research categories. The chapter argues for the pedagogical value of testing, suggesting that students benefit from identifying, defining, and illustrating core concepts as a way to internalize intellectual terrain. Field exams, concept glossaries, and vocabulary tests help solidify these connections. The chapter concludes with a case for “conceptualism” as a core scholarly orientation: Concepts allow generalization while grounding knowledge in empirical cases. Working with concepts is cognitively satisfying and essential for memory, communication, and cumulative learning – what more could a good course (or concept) hope to achieve?