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Environmental economics is growing rapidly. It is simply not sufficient to consider consumption, production, and welfare in isolation from the natural environment. Integrating ecological systems in economic analysis requires to take the possible occurrence of tipping points or regime shifts into account. This Element focuses on two recent developments in environmental economics theory. One is economic management of ecological systems with tipping points, with the lake as the classical example. The other one is investigating the consequences of uncertain possible shocks to parameters in economic models, with the carrying capacity in a fishery and total factor productivity (due to climate tipping) in Ramsey growth as examples. This Element provides a precise account of the concepts, techniques, and results in the analysis of these models, which shows the effects of tipping and allows for other applications. This Element starts with a broader list of examples and management options.
What does it require to critically investigate our sensory engagement with urban living? How can one analytically study sensory behaviours of both human and animal actors? This Element explores how sensory encounters of smells and sounds in urban living shape human-animal relations in the city. Conceptually anchored upon the proposed notions of sensory contact zones and sensory citizenship, this study further highlights how smells and sounds may be subject to the purview of law and sensory jurisprudence. It conceptualises new modes of fostering and analysing these themes through interrogating a range of sensory interactions in historical and contemporary contexts.
Since the 1980s, China has become steadily enmeshed in multilateral international organizations (MIOs). A rich body of rhetoric and behaviour is available to deepen our understanding of why and how Beijing engages with MIOs, additionally allowing a response to the question of whether China's engagement is shifting the global normative landscape in ways that significantly affect the on-going transition in global order. With these aims in mind, this Element first adopts a 'snapshot' macro-analytical perspective that draws on existing scholarship and official documentation to compare two eras of Chinese MIO engagement across several issue areas. The Element next adopts a case-study, process-driven, understanding of China and MIOs, examining the evolution of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the BRICS, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It concludes that China, through incremental measures, is fashioning reordering that pushes in similar directions. However, this capacity to effect significant change varies considerably across institutional settings.
Sincerity is essential to communication: without a norm of sincerity, we could hardly trust what other people tell us. But what does it take to be sincere, exactly? And why is sincerity so important? Sincerity and Insincerity offers a comprehensive review of existing philosophical work on the nature of sincerity and its epistemic value. It puts forward a novel, fine-grained account of what sincerity and insincerity are, and dives into the grey area between the two, identifying various ways in which speakers can be partially sincere. Integrating ideas from different philosophical subfields and traditions, it offers an updated perspective on what makes sincerity epistemically valuable, giving serious consideration to the idea that sincerity is the norm of assertion. Overall, this Element provides a novel, informed perspective on what sincerity is, how it works, and why it matters.
The topic of linguistic networks unites different frameworks in cognitive linguistics. This Element explores two approaches to networks, specifically Construction Grammar of the Goldberg variety and Word Grammar as developed by Hudson, and how they inform work on language change. Both are usage-based theories, but while the basic units of Construction Grammar are conventionalized form-meaning pairings gathered in a construct-i-con, the basic units of Word Grammar are words in dependency and other relations. Construction Grammar allows for schematic, hierarchized abstract generalizations attributable to social groups, whereas Word Grammar focuses on relations at the micro-level and attributable primarily to individuals. Consequences of the differences are discussed with reference to perspectives on the diachronic development of causal connectives in English, especially because.
When scholars discuss the question whether Wittgenstein was a relativist, they invariably draw their criteria from recent definitions of relativism. This study tries a different route: it identifies conceptions of relativism that were influential in the early twentieth century, and uses them as foils for interpreting Wittgenstein's philosophy. Section 1 investigates what Wittgenstein meant in speaking of his 'ethnological perspective,' and how this perspective relates to 'cultural relativism' in anthropology around 1900. Section 2 focuses on Wittgenstein's reflections on logic and mathematics as 'ethnological phenomena.' In this context, the ethnological perspective brought Wittgenstein close to positions that many of his contemporaries denounced as 'psychologism' and 'sociologism.' Section 3 highlights the role of the ethnological perspective in Wittgenstein's remarks on 'certainties.' Many of these remarks would have been counted as relativistic by leading members of the 'Vienna Circle.'
Tens of thousands of mostly younger Black people went to rural Louisiana in 2007 to support the Jena 6, Black students who were overcharged after a school fight. We examine the construction of two narratives. The powerful Jena 6 narrative told how the conflict began when nooses were hung on the school grounds, linking historic racial violence to modern injustice. This narrative emphasized student agency and downplayed documented adult actions. A second narrative about organizing the campaign incorrectly said that existing organizations had ignored the case. We use published sources to trace the ordinary processes as activists, journalists, and organizations became involved in the campaign through three phases – regional organizing, nationalization, scale shift to cascade. In the last phase, many saw this as a historic reinvigoration of the Black movement. Circulating narratives inspired participation by stressing youthful agency and spontaneity. More accurate accounts are better for theory and action.
This Element aims to expand the theoretical and methodological boundaries of Cognitive Linguistics. Research on language contact from a cognitive perspective has been neglected despite the omnipresence of linguistic contact situations. This Element addresses questions of language contact research from a cognitive perspective. The aims of this Element are twofold: first, to present the current state of the art in cognitive contact linguistics; second, to discuss existing and original theoretical approaches in this field. The focus is on four key topics that can be examined within a cognitive framework: manifestations of language contact in language processing and production, contact-induced language change at different linguistic levels, contact-induced variation in discourse and conversation, and the combination of a social and cognitive perspective in the analysis of loan processes and their linguistic effects. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
This Element addresses the illiberal challenge facing public administration amidst the rise of authoritarian populism and democratic backsliding. It investigates how populist governments seek to reshape state bureaucracies, often undermining liberal democratic principles such as pluralism, expertise, and constitutional safeguards, and examines how public administration must respond to safeguard democratic integrity. Drawing on global examples, the Element identifies strategies of populist administrative manipulation, patterns of bureaucratic compliance and resistance, and critical gaps in scholarly understanding. It develops a framework for analyzing these dynamics and proposes normative principles to defend active democratic bureaucracy. Through theoretical inquiry and practical recommendations, it advocates for robust, ethically grounded public administration capable of countering illiberal pressures. Its central thesis underscores the need to restore the intellectual foundation of public administration as a social science deeply embedded in and committed to the democratic policy process. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Investigates the 2016 installation of Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) toponym signs throughout the White Earth Reservation, reflecting an ongoing tradition of Ojibwe linguistic preservation rooted in environmental knowledge of waters. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with White Earth citizens, descendants, and personnel, this work addresses how these public markers make Anishinaabemowin visible in the world for Ojibwe youth and other White Earth Anishinaabeg, while marking the reservation as an Ojibwe space. These place name signs, along with youth language programs, intervene in the legacy of imposed language loss of Anishinaabemowin on the White Earth Reservation caused by mission, day, and boarding schools. Examines Ojibwe people's intergenerational efforts to document place names, responses to these signs, and how they relate to toponymic authority and spatial belonging. Focuses on historic and contemporary stories of Ojibwe geographic relationships grounded in fishing, hunting, ricing, and gathering within and surrounding Gaa-waabaabiganikaag. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
This Element maps the relationship between taxation and social policy from a comparative and historical perspective. It critically reviews studies in fiscal sociology, history, political science, and political economy to highlight blind spots in the body of knowledge that future studies could explore. It shows that studying the revenue side of social policy offers compelling answers to central questions tackled in welfare state scholarship and addresses questions such as: What explains the introduction and timing of social programs? How can we understand processes of welfare state expansion and retrenchment? What determines the redistributive capacity of welfare states? What accounts for variations in redistributive capacity between groups and across generations in different countries? While bringing in the financing side of social policy complements prevailing accounts in the welfare state literature, studying financing can also transform how we understand social policy. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Solar geoengineering (SG) is a set of highly controversial emerging technologies proposed to address climate change by reflecting sunlight away from the planet to reduce temperatures. SG may reduce climate risks, however it also presents novel risks, uncertainties, and challenges, necessitating broad and inclusive public engagement. This Element presents a briefing book and methods toolkit to build capacity for public engagement on SG. Part I of the Element explains the need to build capacity to enable public engagement on solar geoengineering, and presents three methods for doing so: capacity building workshops, participatory Technology Assessment, and Deliberative Polling. Part II presents a briefing book that provides accessible, balanced, and evidence-based information on critical topics including climate science, climate policy, SG science, SG governance and policy, and SG ethics and justice. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
Current policing practices directly continue from historical methods. City policing in the Global North emerged as a response to unrest and subsistence crises during the late stage of the Little Ice Age, namely across two capital cities, Dublin and later London. From the mid-1700s, poor harvests and food rioting precipitated a series of policing reforms in the Irish Parliament. In the 1800s, further weather fluxes and unrest, combined with shifts in interpretation of social obligation - all linked to increasing urban population and its mobility – led to a series of new police reforms in Great Britain, soon reaching its former and current dominions. The expanding urban centres from Ireland to Australia, and England to North America, shared founding principles, structures, regulations and personnel. Despite modernisation and innovations in operational policing, law enforcement continues to face similar challenges in an increasingly globalising world, partly due to persistent adherence to historical antecedents.
China's Green Belt and Road Initiative (GBRI) was launched in 2017 to address key criticisms of the original BRI and to better align China's overseas development strategy with the global climate agenda. This research examines whether the GBRI represents a genuine shift in China or just a symbolic gesture, and explores its underlying domestic and international drivers. Specifically, it interrogates three prevailing interpretations of the GBRI: a greenwashing tactic, a geopolitical strategy, and a global climate cooperation effort. Our analysis reveals a more dynamic and nuanced process behind the GBRI's emergence and evolution in China. On the one hand, the initiative is rooted in Chinese green industrialization and globalization, interacting with external opportunities and constraints. On the other hand, the rise of GBRI has elicited diverse responses: while US-aligned countries have imposed barriers, emerging markets, while selectively, have embraced Chinese green energy investments.
This Element advances an agency-theoretic approach to public administration through comparative analysis of the United States, China, and EU. It examines how principals – such as legislatures, executives, or ruling parties – can align the actions of diverse agents, including civil servants, public agencies, street-level bureaucrats, and contractors, with the public interest. Drawing on an extensive review of 146 key studies and AI-assisted analysis of 8,400 articles from Public Administration Review, Part I outlines fundamental concepts: goal divergence, moral hazard, adverse selection, and information asymmetry and traces its history, debates, and criticisms. These concepts are then applied to key themes in public administration – performance management, federalism/decentralization, contracting, politics-administration, and institutional drift. Part II investigates how these problems manifest and tackled in the US, China, and Europe. Part III concludes with a synthesis of findings, debates, extensions, and future directions for theory and practice.
This Element centers the 'Black Pacific' as a generative site for comparative and intersectional methodologies and transnational frameworks for thinking about racial formations, post-national literary forms, and cultural histories. At the end of the nineteenth century, US overseas expansion into the Pacific brought white supremacy and colonial rule into alignment. It also threw into greater relief the contradictions of US citizenship and national identity as legalized segregation and rising anti-Black violence foreclosed Reconstruction's possibilities. Race accrued dynamic new meanings in the age of new imperialism. Focusing on the earliest of African American literary magazines, the Boston-based Colored American Magazine (1900–09) and its southern rival, the Atlanta-based Voice of the Negro (1904–7), this Element examines the formative role of magazine and periodical writings in the development of early Black transpacific internationalism.
This Element has three main aims. First, the authors wish to synthesize research on language teacher psychology to provide state-of-the-art insights into the topic and identify possible avenues of scholarship. They do so by adopting a trilogy of mind perspective, which helps organize aspects of teacher psychology into three domains: cognition, affect, and motivation. Second, the overview of the literature outlines key issues, identifies gaps in current understandings and scholarship, and it also introduces less common constructs (e.g., flow, collective efficacy beliefs, and attributions) to inspire future research in this area. Third, the authors intend to reflect on practical implications for practitioners, language teacher educators, preservice teachers, and policymakers of the research to date. Rather than offering a definitive account, the authors seek to open dialogue and encourage further research and practice to ensure language teachers in all contexts receive the recognition and thus support they deserve.
This Element is composed of three sections that explore Gregory of Nyssa's understanding of the resurrected life. First, according to Gregory, Christ establishes the ascent as the way of virtue and all who desire virtue will be sustained and sated by an infinite God. Second, Gregory assumes that the resurrected life affects us now, and not just our souls but our bodies, our relationships, and our neighbors. Finally, the resurrected life includes companions and teachers, such as his sister Macrina, and those who offer us their lives as instruction, model, and guide like Moses or Paul. This Element engages across multiple works to demonstrate that, for Gregory, Christ's resurrected body affects the bodies of all humans who choose to be on the ascent to God. For Gregory, everything was at stake. As a person lives into the resurrection, they become newly connected and beholden to their neighbors, near and far.
This Element is an opinionated introduction to Heidegger's phenomenology in Being and Time and surrounding works, framed in terms of Heidegger's debts to and divergence from Husserl's phenomenology. Section 1 situates Heidegger's and Husserl's phenomenology with respect to the 'identity-crisis of philosophy,' in particular the debate over whether philosophy is a science or a mere cataloguing of worldviews. Section 2 critically evaluates Heidegger's claims that various forms of conscious intentionality central to Husserl's phenomenology are 'derivative' or 'founded.' Section 3 turns to method, exploring whether Heidegger adopts Husserl's reductions, platonism, and method of essential seeing and imaginative variation. Section 4 explores Heidegger's hermeneutical turn in phenomenology and explains the uses to which he puts religious sources, mythology, and ordinary language.
This Element discusses the roles played by the idea of God in René Descartes' epistemology, physics, and metaphysics, and problems arising from those roles. Section 1 gives an overview of Descartes' life, works, and reception, focusing on the extent to which he is a religious or a secular thinker. Section 2 focuses on the problem of the Cartesian circle generated by his claim that all human knowledge depends on knowledge of God. Section 3 explains the role of God in Descartes' physics and addresses problems concerning how God's causal activity relates to that of creatures, including how divine providence fits with human freedom and how voluntary bodily actions are consistent with the laws of nature. Section 4 explores Descartes' claim that God freely created the eternal truths, noting its implications for his theory of modality.