This chapter builds on two papers published in 2016 that were the first to define and operationalise sustainable employability (SE) in a questionnaire (the CSWQ) in terms of the Capability Approach (CA), published by a consortium of the authors of this chapter. In this chapter, we first briefly summarise the research reported in these papers and then present research that has been conducted since then. We update and further develop the relationship between SE and the CA. In reporting follow-up research since 2016, we first present the results of a Delphi survey among experts and discuss some constructive critical remarks that have been published in the scientific literature. We discuss the conceptual and empirical steps taken since 2016. We distinguish between studies with a focus on 1) methodological aspects, both conceptual and measurement properties of the capability instrument, 2) specific target groups and 3) specific contexts and situations. The chapter concludes with a discussion and suggestions for future research in this area. In addition, two appendices have been added with the CSWQ (Appendix 2.1) and a conversation guide for the practical application of the CSWQ in the consultation room (Appendix 2.2).

‘The Show Must Go On(line)’ explores how the Brussels Bubble adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, transforming crisis into an opportunity to redefine the boundaries of EU governance. As the virus disrupted face-to-face diplomacy in early 2020, the European Union’s institutions faced an unprecedented test: could the ‘compromise machine’ function without its traditional rituals of physical presence? This chapter traces the rapid shift to virtual formats, revealing how digital tools became both lifelines and sources of friction. COREPER ambassadors, deemed essential, continued in-person meetings, consolidating their influence, while others navigated the challenges of online negotiations – from ‘death by PowerPoint’ to the loss of informal corridor chats. Through the experiences of diplomats, interpreters and civil servants, the chapter illuminates the emotional and professional toll of ‘synthetic situations’, where screens replaced handshakes and digital skills became diplomatic currency.

The pandemic exposed and reinforced hierarchies, as access to physical spaces signaled status and power. Yet, it also spurred innovation, with virtual pre-meetings and new protocols becoming permanent fixtures. By 2025, the Bubble had embraced a hybrid model, reserving in-person gatherings for sensitive negotiations and using digital platforms for routine coordination. Ultimately, the crisis demonstrated that while the EU’s show could go on(line), the tension between digital efficiency and the irreplaceable value of face-to-face interaction remains at the heart of Brussels’ diplomatic culture.

To consider Romanticism, world literature, and empire together entails reexamining the position of authors like Byron not only within the British Empire but also within other imperial formations, such as the Ottoman Empire. Focusing on Byron’s Ottoman Turkish reception, where he seems to exert no influence on local literary-cultural sensibilities, this chapter explores possibilities of envisioning a world literature that does not reproduce Western capitalist value systems. Byron’s “insignificant” presence in the Ottoman Turkish textual-visual landscape undermines the Eurocentric romanticization of the cultural capital attributed to Western icons among non-Anglophone audiences; simultaneously, it fuels a critical reflection on the empire-empire nexus that complicates the conventional geocultural hierarchies (e.g., East versus West, Orient versus Occident, etc.) shaping the contours of world literature.

This chapter focuses the fractures in urban space created by racialized capitalism in the final decades of the twentieth century. Shoop distils discourses of neoliberal-era Los Angeles by drawing into dialogue the contrasting readings of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel proffered by Fredric Jameson and Mike Davis. Shoop explores Joan Didion’s expression of White paranoia over demographic changes as expressed in The White Album, setting Didion’s racial anxieties alongside the forms of Chicano resistance and historical memory articulated in Luis Valdez’s play Zoot Suit (1979). Shoop then examines how Carolyn See’s Golden Days (1986) and Paul Beatty’s The White Boy Shuffle (1996) satirically criticize racial liberalism and suburban whiteness. The chapter concludes by discussing the fractured, global Los Angeles as it emerges in the wake of the 1992 LA Uprising, in Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1993) and Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange (1997).

The Second World War was a global experience, yet histories of the home front remain confined to individual nations and national mythologies. This chapter argues instead that most home fronts were transnationally constructed between the 1920s and 1945, as planners in each nation systematically investigated how allies and enemies were mobilizing their civilian populations for “total war.” Despite differences in political regimes, home fronts came to resemble each other in food rationing, civil defense, labor mobilization, neighborhood associations, mobilization of women and youth, mass evacuations, and war savings campaigns. Japanese military and civil officials were particularly active in investigating European and US home-front policies during the First World War. Their observations contributed to the construction of a “dual-use home front.” During the interwar decades, the Japanese state mobilized the populace for economic development and social stability. But its top-down organizations could just as easily be redeployed for war, as they were in the conflicts with China and the Western Allies (1937–1945).

This chapter recovers the work of Charles Phillips, a barrister known for his florid rhetorical style. It looks at his argument with the Edinburgh Review about the proper nature of ‘legitimate eloquence’ within the context of wider tensions in post-Napoleonic Britain around the democratisation of public speech. Oratory was now considered potentially radical, even anarchic, which gave a greater urgency to defining and policing Irish speech.

This chapter considers the evolution of English policy towards Ireland from the sixteenth century onwards. It argues how, at the beginning of the seventeenth century and the important reign of James VI and I, there was a renewed emphasis on religion, specifically Protestant evangelisation, as a key part of colonial projects, with Ireland part of wider trends in developing English imperialism. This resulted in policies of ‘converting and civilising’, with concepts of civility becoming inextricable with the Protestant religion. This was made visible in the planning and requirements of plantation schemes such as Ulster, which is contrasted with earlier schemes’ more lax religious requirements. The stress on religion, in turn, generated Irish Catholic resistance, which also drew on religious arguments, justifications and imagery in resisting the dispossession, displacement and loss of power that plantations represented. The Catholic clergy were crucial actors in articulating this religiously inflected opposition. The effect of both plantation and challenges to it was the increasing voicing of grievances, across a range of issues, in religious terms and through religious categories.

I recently sat in the audience at CLaSIC 2024 at the National University of Singapore, listening to Dr. Sarah Mercer’s keynote on the importance of prioritizing language teacher well-being to ignite learning engagement. Her words resonated deeply – if we want students to engage, we must first ensure that language teachers feel supported, valued, and emotionally well. But as I read the chapters in this volume, another question kept surfacing: What about those who teach the teachers? At the heart of this volume is the recognition that language teacher educators (LTEs) play a crucial role in shaping future language teachers, yet their emotional experiences have remained largely invisible in research and practice (Nazari et al., 2023). This volume challenges that invisibility, offering a much-needed space to examine the emotions LTEs navigate in their daily work. Across diverse global contexts, LTEs must not only manage their own emotions but also guide the emotional experiences of the teachers they mentor. At the same time, sociopolitical structures, educational policies, systemic constraints, and neoliberal pressures shape their professional realities, demanding constant emotional regulation, adaptation, and identity negotiation.

Here is a very different picture of the Shrikhande graph from that we have seen before (Fig. 7.1).

The graph appears to have 25 vertices. But the purpose of the small single and double arrows is to tell us that the five vertices along the bottom of the parallelogram are to be identified with the five vertices along the top, while the five on the left are identified with the five on the right, keeping the same order in each case. (So for example the four vertices of the parallelogram become a single vertex after this identification.)

Before proceeding, we stop to identify the graph with the Shrikhande graph, using the description given in Section 2.6.

This chapter explores the concept of decent work from the vantage point of the Global South, arguing for a universal yet context-sensitive framework grounded in the capability approach (CA) and decolonial thinking. Drawing from the South African historical experience, it critiques how notions of labour and dignity have been shaped by colonialism, apartheid, and persistent structural inequalities. The chapter positions the CA not as an individualistic or Western framework but as one that emphasises relationality, emancipation, and context-based capabilities. In dialogue with decolonial theory, the CA enables a pluriversal conception of decent work that is historically grounded and socially just. The concept of parrhesia, or courageous truth-telling, is presented as a shared ethical commitment within both frameworks, facilitating critical interrogation of hegemonic labour norms. Through this lens, decent work becomes a transformative and reconstructive pursuit – one that confronts structural violence and fosters human dignity, inclusion, and epistemic justice.

Chapter 14 focuses on diversity in the primary mathematics classroom and the need to create inclusive and responsive learning environments. It examines strategies to recognise and value students’ diverse cultural, linguistic, and learning needs, and offers practical approaches for differentiation and equitable participation in mathematics. You will explore how inclusive pedagogy supports all learners in developing confidence and capability as mathematical thinkers.