This essay examines how Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman draws on and revises key themes from Adam Smith’s moral philosophy. While Smith is often seen as a theorist of sympathy and market society, Wollstonecraft engages with his ideas to develop a distinctive critique of women’s social and moral subordination. I highlight how she reworks Smith’s account of moral development to emphasize the formative role of adversity, independence, and judgment—particularly in shaping female character. In doing so, Wollstonecraft also challenges the ideals of femininity promoted in contemporary conduct literature, exposing how they hinder moral agency and reinforce dependence. The analysis shows how she reimagines the moral conditions of modern society and offers an early feminist response to both commercial and sentimental conceptions of virtue.

Thomas Riccio’s analysis of Sophia, the social robot developed by Hanson Robotics, presents her as a liminal figure at the intersection of myth, technology, and identity, embodying both ancient archetypes and emergent posthuman imaginaries. Sophia’s design, evolution, and media presence challenge conventional notions of agency, consciousness, and embodiment and raising questions on the broader ethical, ontological, and social dimensions of human-machine coevolution. As a speculative interface, Sophia redefines subjectivity within the horizon of a technologically mediated future.

The present paper first distinguishes three different ways in which the logic of parthood and composition on the one hand, and the logic of location on the other might interact. It then goes on to explore several relations between location and composition. In doing so it (i) sheds new light on recent results and (ii) proves new substantive ones along the way.

The mudskipper Boleophthalmus dussumieri (Teleostei, Gobiiformes, Oxudercidae) is an amphibious goby native to the Indian Ocean, from Kuwait Bay and Persian Gulf to the northeast of the Arabian Sea and the western coast of India. This study reports on the first record of B. dussumieri in the Atlantic Ocean, based on morphological and molecular evidence. A single specimen was collected in September 2024 in São Marcos Bay, on the coast of the state of Maranhão (Brazilian Amazon Coast). This is the second exotic species of oxudercid goby reported for the coast of Maranhão, possibly accidentally introduced through ballast water discharge.

Welcome to Volume 26, No. 4 of Enterprise and Society. By tradition, this issue carries the Presidential Address delivered at the annual meeting of the Business History Conference, alongside summaries of those dissertations shortlisted for the Krooss Prize for Best Dissertation in Business History. The 2025 Presidential Address was delivered by Stephen Mihm at the annual meeting in Athens, Georgia (USA). Stephen’s topic was “The Business of Labor.” Unfortunately, unforeseen circumstances have as yet prevented Stephen from finalizing his address for publication. We look forward to publishing the address as soon as possible. Three dissertations were shortlisted for the Krooss Prize: Joshua Lappen on “Electrification, Politics, and Visibility in Greater Los Angeles”; Pablo Pryluka on “Developing Consumers: A History of Wants and Needs in Postwar South America”; and Mattie Webb on “Diplomacy at Work: The South African Worker, U.S. Multinationals, and Transnational Racial Solidarity (1972-1987).” We congratulate all three finalists, and especially Dr. Pryluka, who was the 2025 prize recipient. All three summaries are presented in this issue.

Since the 1990s, growing interest in the relationship between clusters and economic growth has highlighted the importance of understanding their internal structures and life cycles. Still, the mechanisms underlying cluster emergence remain largely unknown, especially regarding the influence of public policies in this initial stage. This paper examines the emergence of a metalworking cluster in the Spanish steelmaking pole of Asturias, focusing on Francoist industrial policy and the regime’s relationship with regional firms.

Findings indicate that Asturias presented favorable conditions for cluster formation since the late eighteenth century. However, only the establishment of the national steelmaking champion Ensidesa in 1950 triggered the appearance of self-reinforcing dynamics, finally boosting the cluster’s emergence. This process resulted from the indirect externalities generated by the steel industry and was never part of the Francoist industrial agenda. Despite the recognized sector’s potential, the regime prioritized strategic base industries and systematically ignored calls for direct support for metalworking firms.

In July 2023, drag artist Pura Luka Vega’s Ama Namin (Our Father) performance in “Jesus drag” went viral across the Philippine archipelago. Many deemed Luka’s performance blasphemous, and they were declared persona non grata and imprisoned twice. This kanalization is a process where Christian fundamentalists, conservative publics, and state officials tag bakla (often conflated with being gay or transfeminine) as kanal (canal or sewer), deserving imprisonment and even death. By queering worship, bakla communities challenge anti-bakla regimes.