James Kraska and Khanssa Lagdami, The trajectory of science and technology in developing the Law of the Sea and Oceans Governance

This chapter outlines the scope of the book, introducing historical concepts and perceptions of disability, the popular connections made between deafness and disability, and the more recent approaches of social and cultural historians to disability, minority and community histories. The Introduction also highlights the processes by which the data for this research was collected, making innovative use of deaf newspapers and the way these were produced to provide unique insights into the deaf experience in Britain. The introduction then moves on to illustrate how this information has been used to inform an analysis of deaf leisure and sport and the ways in which broader theories of leisure as a basis for community cohesion can be applied to deaf people.

The chapter recovers the previously untold history of men from the Philippines who opened new businesses called blade-and-scissors shops to separate themselves from traditional barber surgeons. Migrants and formerly enslaved people challenged members of the established professional association, the Barber and Surgeons Guild, who tried to shut down their competitors. The history of public health provides context for their economic achievements because they had to deal with officials and doctors who regulated caregivers. They hid that they offered an alternative wellness experience in their shops and suggested instead that residents only patronized their businesses for grooming, which did not concern doctors, to stay open and secure their niche in the health market.

As states pursue net-zero emissions by mid-century, transforming energy systems and mobility is essential. This ‘Green Transition’ demands large-scale deployment of clean energy technologies and infrastructure, which requires expanding mining and mineral processing. Oceans, covering 71% of the Earth’s surface, are now seen as a new frontier for sourcing these minerals. These resources are considered strategic due to their role in clean technologies, sustainable products, and supply disruption. Consequently, the European Union, the US, India, Japan, and Australia have prioritized mineral supply security. As land-based deposits decline in quality and quantity, focus has shifted to the sea-raising environmental concerns, as the marine environment already faces over-exploitation, pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change. Harnessing ocean resources requires sustainable, balanced approaches. Technological advances are essential, particularly due to the expiration of the two-year deadline for the mining code. Once this expires, the ISA must consider any seabed mining plans. Given the complexity of seabed mining, assessing whether seabed technologies meet sustainability goals is vital. This chapter examines the governance framework, including precautionary practices, and examines the role of states and contractors. It also maps the technological and environmental readiness and highlights adaptive management to reduce uncertainty and avoid costly mitigation.

Britain's twentieth-century proprietary model railway trade resembles marine ecology, with many small fish trailling in a couple of barracudas' wake. Developing an integrated 0 gauge model railway system, in 1925 Frank Hornby bandoned Meccano components. As Kenneth Brown documents in ghastly detail, by 1985 the British toy industry, so profitable two decades earlier, had almost ceased to exist. Down with its parent bodies went the British toy train trade. Although a commercial failure, the toy-train system laid groundworks for Trix-Twin's startling success after 1935. Imported to Britain by Bassett-Lowke anglicised in appearance and manufactured in Northampton by Winteringham Ltd, one twig in Bassett-Lowke's ramified model engineering empire, Trix-Twin sold very well when he helped the German company's Jewish principals to evade Nazi anti-Semitic property laws. Today's railway modellers demand an astonishing range of peripheral items. 'The cast whitemetal kit has revolutionised railway modelling in Britain,' Cyril Freezer insists.

The inhibiting effects of twenty years of dictatorship on processes of democratic renewal in post-war Italy are clearly visible in the police. Several policemen accused of collaborationism during the Nazi occupation sought help from a neo-fascist network, the Movimento Italiano Femminile (MIF), founded in October 1946. A closer reading of post-war police journals and manuals suggests that the fascist experience influenced the Interior Ministry Police in more ways than they would probably admit. The post-war militarisation of the Interior Ministry Police saw a major influx of personnel from the army, the former fascist colonial police (PAI) and special divisions of the Militia. The attractiveness of Benito Mussolini's dictatorship depended largely on how far police personnel identified with its public order policy, but also on the career opportunities and level of material well-being it offered.

The chapter outlines the contextual framework, within which German and British trade union politics at Ford and General Motors evolved between the late 1960s and the early twenty-first century. The chapter starts with a brief sketch of the postwar development of the British and German automobile industries, followed by a synthetic overview of the development of the two national industrial relations systems and the description of the specific trade union and industrial relations patterns at Ford and General Motors.

This chapter examines how the migrant women navigate the patriarchal norms and cultural expectations that commodify them as objects of Chinese national desire, positioning the bodies of white women as social capital within the Chinese marriage market and immigration system. These women’s presence is valued as a means to enhance the social standing of their Chinese husbands and their families, with their reproductive potential seen as a resource for nurturing future Chinese citizens. I argue that, despite their roles as wives and mothers, foreign women often remain as guests within their own families, as their ‘uterine power’ isn’t sufficient to guarantee their inclusion and form of belonging. To protect themselves from patriarchal pressures, these women draw on maternal instincts, social networks and strategic navigation of citizenship policies and bureaucratic loopholes, creating a delicate balance of autonomy within a system that otherwise seeks to subsume.

The concept of cultural heritage evolved to preserve important objects and practices, in peacetime and during conflict. It now justifies export controls and government regulation and provides the background to moral claims to valuable works of art and architecture. In this new edition of The Idea of Cultural Heritage, Derek Gillman provides an updated overview of both long-standing and more recent controversies over cultural things. In the last decade, these have been further charged not only by accelerating calls for the repatriation of materials from Western museums to countries of origin, but also by institutional acknowledgement of European colonisation and the reimagination of displays at museums and historic sites. Using cases from Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, Gillman provides a critical analysis of whether cosmopolitan or nationalist concerns should take priority in adjudicating cultural disputes, mapping the heritage debate onto positions in contemporary political philosophy and reframing it within a discussion of basic values.