Early African American humour functioned as a method of cultural formation, an in-group way of communicating based on the needs and experiences of the enslaved community. Contemporary Black stand-up has been a foundation upon which to reveal realities of Black life and make those realities accessible and entertaining to an increasingly global audience. This chapter explores the innovative styles and approaches to the artform as an indication that the limits of Black stand-up are expanding. Using three case studies, it demonstrates the Afrofuturistic trajectory of the genre. Elements of resistance have given way to comedic approaches that centre imagination; fleeting moments of revenge are superseded by the materiality of the emancipated Black body; a sense of contentment and personal growth are foregrounded, ephemeral pleasures looming still; and rituals of play produce Afrofuturistic otherworlds where difference matters, disabused of its regulatory power to rank and marginalise.

The argument of this chapter is that the instrument doctrine, if held, sharpens our understanding of other mysteries of the Christian faith, including the hypostatic union, the Church, and the sacrament of the Eucharist. One reason that Aquinas held to the doctrine was the clarity it brought to these other mysteries. With Christology, the benefits are grammatical and speculative. Calling Christ’s humanity an instrument leads us to think of the one who possesses it, namely, the Logos, and so it can render single-subject Christology clearer to the intellect. If Christ’s humanity is held to be an instrument, it also implicates in our understanding the divine power through which the Logos works. With the theology of the Church, the instrument doctrine supports the biblical idea that Christ sends the Holy Spirit on the Church as a human being, and not only as God. And with the theology of the Eucharist, the instrument doctrine assists Catholic faith in perceiving how Jesus gives us a share of the divine life through sacramental communion.

The 2008 global financial collapse marked the onset of a new structural crisis in the world capitalist system. An emerging transnational capitalist class (TCC) launched globalization in response to the last great structural crisis of the 1970s, and in response to global class struggle from below, as a strategy to reconstitute the hegemony of capital and recover the rate of profit. Through globalization processes, countries integrated into a new globally integrated production, financial, and service system. The TCC sought a strategy of generating absolute surplus value through the exploitation of cheap labor made available by globalization processes. By the turn of century, surplus capital had reached enormous proportions as global markets became saturated and stagnation set in. The TCC turned to wild financial speculation, debt-driven growth, the plunder of state finance, and militarized accumulation to unload surplus capital. The digital revolution driven by artificial intelligence may lead to widespread automation, renew the global circuits of capital, and usher in a new round of expansion, but it will also aggravate the underlying contradictions that generate crisis.

The chapter describes the process by which 50 verb complementation patterns have been reinterpreted as verb argument constructions, leading to the identification of 800 constructions. The chapter gives examples from seven patterns: V into n; V n, V n adj; V n to n; V after n; V n that and V n with n. The constructions derived from each pattern are arranged in networks inspired by those used in Systemic Functional Grammar. The networks show the similarities and differences between constructions. They can also be used to show constructions at broader and narrower levels of generality.

In this chapter, we examine the effects of judicial review across citizens. We find that, when courts enjoy high levels of judicial independence, their rulings’ efficacy is amplified among citizens who have a strong regard for the rule of law; when citizens have low levels of support for the rule of law, the effect of a court’s ruling is muted. For courts that lack judicial independence, even those citizens who hold the rule of law in the highest regard are unaffected by a court’s determination that that an executive’s behavior is unconstitutional. Additionally, we explain how the efficacy of judicial review varies based on the public’s approval of the executive whose policy the court reviews. Notably, we find that the public opinion constraint on executives comes from their supporters, not their opponents. These findings point to an important implication: political sympathy for the executive may not necessarily be the Achilles heel of judicial efficacy it is often portrayed to be.

This chapter studies relations between Schoenberg, Stravinsky and their respective camps, from the early twentieth century through the composers’ later years in California. Beginning with an early moment in which their relations were characterized by curiosity and mutual respect, it sketches the emergence in the 1920s of an opposition between Schoenberg’s expressionism and Stravinsky’s neoclassicism. It then examines how this opposition was reinterpreted and codified (if not ossified) in T. W. Adorno’s influential Philosophy of New Music, and in his subsequent writings on both composers. Adorno described Schoenberg’s music as a seismograph that registers tremors of feeling; this chapter reworks Adorno’s metaphor in order to propose that the Schoenberg–Stravinsky–Adorno triad might register tectonic movements of a much larger modernity. Engaging with recent literature on all three figures, it suggests some ways their work might relate to modern regimes of racial difference.

This chapter focuses on the importance of circular business models and the synergies they create within circular economy liveable cities. Circular business models emphasise reducing waste, reusing resources, and recycling materials, promoting sustainable economic growth while addressing environmental challenges. By fostering innovation, resource efficiency, and collaboration across various sectors, these models help cities transition to a circular economy. The chapter highlights the role of leadership, imagination, and curiosity in driving this transformation. Leaders are key to setting ambitious goals and mobilising resources, while imaginative thinking and curiosity foster the development of innovative solutions to urban challenges. Examples from companies like Interface, Patagonia, and Philips Lighting demonstrate how visionary leadership and creative business models contribute to sustainability and circularity. The chapter explores the synergies between circular business models and urban systems, with case studies from cities like Amsterdam and Paris. These cities have adopted circular strategies that integrate sustainable waste management, renewable energy, and resource-efficient practices, showcasing the transformative potential of circular economies. Ultimately, the chapter argues that circular business models are essential for creating resilient, sustainable cities. By leveraging leadership, innovation, and cross-sector collaboration, cities can foster circular economies that promote environmental sustainability, economic growth, and improved quality of life.

Climate change impacts are, however, coming to us all — developing and developed countries alike. For instance, Hurricane Maria’s devastation in the Caribbean and extreme heatwaves in Europe exemplify how no region is immune. The chapter discusses how even developed nations face significant challenges, such as wildfires in Australia and California, and flooding in Germany. Comprehensive policy responses are essential to address these widespread impacts. Insights from experts such as Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s Minister for Finance, highlight the extensive effects of climate change, including infrastructure damage, economic costs, health effects, and migration. The chapter calls for a unified global effort to mitigate climate risks, improve infrastructure resilience, and implement robust economic and health strategies to protect all populations from the escalating consequences of climate change.

Over the past few decades, scholarship within diverse disciplinary fields has directed our attention to the complex ways in which new spatial formations have emerged in the Global South (Bhan 2016; Ghertner 2015; Roy and Ong 2011; Ranganathan, Pike and Doshi 2023). New urban forms and related processes of intense movements of people, capital and labour have marked Indian cities as places that have experienced significant changes in a short span of time. This moment of hyper-visibilisation of cities, especially in the developing world, often eclipses several other compelling and layered processes at work. Integral to this layering are the relatively under-researched changing landscapes of education and the complex ways in which they interface with urban transformations.

In this volume, we hope to address the multitudinous shifts that have occurred in systems of education and urban formation in India. The conceptual richness of multidisciplinary intermixing, along with a range of methodological strategies, can be seen in the different chapters in the volume. What we learn from these explorations is that the nature of the relationship between education and the urban has developed along socio-spatio-temporal lines inhabiting different sites, institutions and voices. In academic terms, the volume opens a conversation between education studies and urban studies by paying attention to the rapid expansion of institutional spaces, the elements of change in predominantly agrarian regions, the formation of peri-urban towns, the enclavisation of schools and the possibilities of imagining educational futures in swirls of change.