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'Digitalization in Emerging Economies' offers a comprehensive exploration of digitalization's transformative potential in the Global South. The book examines the digital revolution's impact on businesses, governments, and individuals in emerging economies. It highlights the paradigm shift in these markets due to advancements like mobile technology, internet connectivity, e-commerce platforms, and digital payment systems. The book also addresses challenges such as privacy, cybersecurity, and the digital divide. It explores the drivers and barriers of digital adoption, the effects on industries and labor markets, and the role of government policies in shaping digital ecosystems. 'Digitalization in Emerging Economies' aims to guide those navigating the digital landscape in a rapidly changing world, contributing to the discourse on leveraging digital technologies for inclusive and sustainable development.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, numerous Western missionaries were involved in debating the existence of God in various religious texts and practices in ancient China. Drawing on both the rising philological scholarship in Europe and their own field experience in China, the Western missionaries examined the idea of God, the Thearch, and Heaven as the Supreme Being in the spiritual life and ritual activities of the Chinese people. From the Christian perspective, they attempted to identify the original belief in one God in ancient China in order to convert their Chinese audience. Furthermore, they addressed the issue of monotheism in the broader Asian context by suggesting the universal monotheistic degeneration from Persia to China across Asia continent.
This Element deals with the interplay between phonology, phonetics and acquisition. It addresses the question of whether and how phonological representations are acquired in adult second language (L2) learners in the face of phonetic variation inherent in speech. Drawing from a large number of empirical studies on the acquisition of L2 speech sounds, the Element outlines how phonetic or phonological representations develop in L2 learners on the basis of input in immersion and instructed language learning contexts. Taking in insights from sociophonetics and clinical linguistics, the Element further discusses how accent variation impacts second language phonological acquisition and what clinical studies on individuals with atypical language development can tell us about the nature of phonological representations. Finally, new avenues in the field of L2 phonology are explored, especially with regard to methodological challenges and opportunities related to the use of spontaneous speech and remote data collection.
Knowledge-first epistemology places knowledge at the normative core of epistemological affairs: on this approach, central epistemic phenomena are to be analyzed in terms of knowledge. This Element offers a defence of an integrated, naturalistic knowledge-first account of justified belief, reasons, evidence and defeat, permissible assertion and action, and the epistemic normativity of practical and theoretical reasoning. On this account, the epistemic is an independent normative domain organized around one central etiological epistemic function: generating knowledge. In turn, this epistemic function generates epistemic norms of proper functioning that constitute the epistemic domain, and govern moves in our epistemic practice, such as forming beliefs, asserting, and reasoning. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Kierkegaard's lifelong fascination with the figure of Socrates has many aspects, but prominent among them is his admiration for the way Socrates was devoted to his divinely ordained mission as a philosopher. To have such a destiny, revealed through what one loves and is passionate about as well as through a feeling of vocation, is a necessary condition of leading a meaningful life, according to Kierkegaard. Examining what Kierkegaard has to say about the meaning of life requires looking at his conception of 'subjective truth,' as well as how he understands the ancient ideal of 'amor fati,' a notion that Nietzsche would subsequently take up, but that Kierkegaard understands in a manner that is distinctly his own, and that he sought to put into practice in his own existence. Our life is a work of art, but we are not the artist.
Karl Marx's criticism of religion, as applied to afterlife belief, needs to be taken seriously by Christian theologians. After outlining that belief, the author examines a picture of heaven implicit in much Christian belief and practice which is susceptible to that critique. he sets out an alternative eschatology, centred on the Kingdom of God and the resurrection of the body, which is somewhat less susceptible. He then explores whether a doctrine of the intermediate state can be sustained in the light of Marx's criticisms. He goes on to examine the politics of remembrance in the light of Marxist criticism, and to ask whether Christianity can help compensate for the tragic character of Marxism. A constant theme is that Christian theology should exist in tension with Marx's criticisms, never assuming that it has overcome them completely.
English Play Development under Neoliberalism, 2000–2022 is the first study of the institutionalising of English play development practices in the twenty-first century. It identifies the ways in which support for playwrights and text development increased beneficially during the 1990s and 2000s. It assesses bureaucratic institutional dynamics in key English producing houses as they were surveyed by two reports in 2009, and how these were experienced and transformed in the 2010s. The Element identifies in new play development innovations in the commodification and marketisation of new writing, the bureaucratisation of literary management, the structuring and restructuring of dramaturgy according to Fordist, then post-Fordist, conditions, and the necessity for commissioned artists to operate as neoliberal subjects. It concludes with attention to a liberatory horizon for play development in the English context. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
This Element focusses on the emergence of Aegean Prehistory as a discipline, starting with the first recorded encounters with prehistoric monuments and artefacts and ending with the decipherment of Linear B in 1952. It broadens the history of Aegean Bronze Age archaeology as told in popular accounts as a series of excavations of great men, particularly Heinrich Schliemann at Troy and Mycenae and Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos. Though their work is of fundamental importance for the discipline, here it is placed within wider political, institutional and intellectual frameworks. This Element also provides an overview of the work of many other archaeologists across the Aegean and the regional and historical context in which they operated. It provides a brief but comprehensive history of the formative stages of the study of Aegean Prehistory.
This Element explores the significance of the Japanese wartime empire's occupation of Southeast Asia during World War Two for understanding the region's colonial legacies. It conceptualizes the occupation as a critical juncture that mediated the survival of American and European colonial institutions, and comparatively describes how, between 1940 and 1945, a wide variety of formal institutions for governing territories and people operated under the Japanese, who selectively kept or changed the existing arrangements of their Western predecessors, while sometimes introducing new ones altogether. The Japanese occupation, as such, generated different processes for transmitting pre-1940 colonial institutions into postwar and independent Southeast Asia. Building on new histories of the occupation, this Element offers an analytical framework that helps social scientists specify the mechanisms through which the long-run consequences of colonial institutions obtain in the context of Southeast Asia, while grappling more generally with what constitutes a meaningful rupture to historical continuity.
By way of an analysis of Heidegger's use of the elements of earth, water, air, and fire as a means to describe the unfolding of being, this Element offers a novel account of Heidegger's understanding of the human. By covering a variety of texts from the late-20s through the early-50s (including several of his recently published Black Notebooks), this Element demonstrates the manner in which these elements comprise, for Heidegger, the very being of the human.
Is there a history of neo-fascism in Brazil? The purpose of this Element is to analyze neo-fascism as a late phenomenon to understand its impacts and its connections with the so-called new rights, the radical right, as well as Bolsonarism. For this purpose, this Element is separated in three sections, addressing the formation of the first neo-fascist organizations after the Brazilian democratic transition; the development and articulation of a transnational network amidst a sharpening political crisis; and the emergence of a more complex and active Brazilian framework in the global extreme-right scenario in recent years. The main argument is that, despite being a late phenomenon, neo-fascism managed to articulate itself and have a political impact in Brazil, therefore eliciting further investigation to understand its complexity and diversity.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine came on the heels of a series of crises that tested the resilience of the EU as a compound polity and arguably reshaped European policymaking at all levels. This Element investigates the effects of the invasion on public support for European polity building across four key policy domains: refugee policy, energy policy, foreign policy, and defence. It shows how support varies across four polity types (centralized, decentralized, pooled, reinsurance) stemming from a distinction between policy and polity support. In terms of the drivers of support and its evolution over time, performance evaluations and ideational factors appear as strong predictors, while perceived threat and economic vulnerability appear to matter less. Results show strong support for further resource pooling at the EU level in all domains that can lead to novel and differentiated forms of polity-building. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Wood is, and always has been, one of the most common and versatile materials for creating structures and art. It is therefore also a ubiquitous element of the archaeological record. This discussion of the study of archaeological wood introduces a number of approaches to the analysis of these organic remains, including a brief overview of wood science, factors that impact the survival of wood materials, wood anatomy, and dendrochronology. These sections are intended to help archaeologists and other interested non-specialists prepare to encounter archaeological woods, and to understand the potential scientific data that these remains could contribute to our understanding of the human past. This is followed by additional approaches from the social sciences. The study of woodworking techniques and toolmarks, combined with ethnoarchaeology and experimental archaeology, can push wood analyses further. A combination of these approaches can help to create a more holistic view of humankind's relationship to wood.
This case study examines the implementation of Namibia's first Productivity Task Force focused on the high-value fruit sector from 2021 to 2024. Productivity task forces, modeled after Peru's Mesas Ejecutivas, facilitate public-private dialogues to resolve sector-specific productivity issues. The Namibian Investment Promotion and Development Board, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, and the Ministry of Finance led the Namibian task force. The study highlights critical stages, including the task force's management and organization, political authorization, and the identification and resolution of productivity problems. While some challenges remain unsolved, the PTF has laid the groundwork for long-term improvements in government capacity, better public-public coordination, public-private collaboration, and a more business-friendly environment. The study offers valuable insights for implementing similar public-private initiatives in other developing countries. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
This Element offers an opinionated and selective introduction to philosophical issues concerning the metaphysics of color. The opinion defended is that colors are objective features of our world; objects are colored, and they have those colors independent of how they are experienced. It is a minority opinion. Many philosophers thinking about color experience argue that perceptual variation, the fact that color experiences vary from observer to observer and from viewing condition to viewing condition, makes objectivism untenable. Many philosophers thinking about colors and science argue that colors are ontologically unnecessary; nothing to be explained requires an appeal to colors. A careful look at arguments from perceptual variation shows that those arguments are not compelling, and especially once it is clear how to individuate colors. Moreover, a careful look at scientific explanations shows that colors are explanatorily essential. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Although claims to sacredness are often linked to the power of a distant past, the work of making places sacred is creative, novel, renewable, and reversible. This Element highlights how sacred space is newly made. It is often associated with blood, death, and geographic anomalies, yet no single feature determines sacred associations. People make space sacred by connecting with 'extrahuman' figures – the ancestors, spirits, and gods that people attempt to interact with in every society. These connections can be concentrated in people's bodies, yet bodies are particularly vulnerable to loss. The Element also examines the multidimensional and multisensory dimensions of sacred space, which can be made almost anywhere, including online, but can also be unmade. Unmaking sacred space can entail new sacralization. New and minority religions in particular provide excellent sites for studying sacredness as a value, raising the reliably productive question: sacred for whom?
The city of Liverpool is renowned for its popular music, although the formidable hagiography which has developed around the Beatles tends to dominate historical considerations to the virtual exclusion of the many other varied genres which have flourished in the city before, during, and after them. Within Liverpool's popular-music past is a partially hidden history of women's musical leadership. This Element concerns the Grafton Rooms' bandleader, dancer, and pianist Mary Hamer (1904–1992). Hamer led the otherwise all-male dance band at the Grafton for two decades, providing dancers with first-class dance music. The Element considers Hamer within the rapidly evolving dance music culture of interwar Liverpool, and discusses the different genres and sub-genres of popular music and dance presented at the Grafton and the role(s) of women in popular music and as bandleaders. This is contextualised within the contemporary social anxieties of popular dance cultures, sexuality, faith, class, and race.
Known as a place, a people, and a kingdom at various points in the second and first millennia BCE, Moab has long sustained the attention of archaeologists, philologists, and historians, in part because of its adjacent location to ancient Israel. The past 150 years of research in what is today west-central Jordan has proffered a significant corpus of evidence from the region's archaeological sites. However, a critical analysis of this evidence reveals significant gaps in knowledge that challenge attempts to narrate Moab's political, economic, and social history. This Element examines the evidence as well as the debates surrounding Moab's development and decline. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
This Element considers recent changes to the long-standing pattern in US politics that women are less politically active than men. On one hand, the gender gap in political activity beyond voting has disappeared. On the other, the disparity remains when it comes to political money. What is the explanation? The Element begins with politics – both the long-term increase in women occupying political positions and the way that trends/events like MeToo, the defeat of Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump's performative masculinity made gender salient. It then turns to social structural changes, examining in particular women's relative gains in income and, especially, education. Paying consistent attention to intersectional differences among men and among women, whether based on political party, race, or ethnicity, the authors find the explanation of these trends to be rooted not in politics, but rather in social structure. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Historians explain the eighteenth-century origin of European colonialism in Asia either with the profile of the merchants or an argument about uneven power. This Element suggests that the environment was an important factor, too. With India (1600-1800) as the primary example, it says that the tropical monsoon climatic condition, extreme seasonality, and low land yield made the land-tax-based empires weak from within. The seaboard supplied a more benign environment. Sometime in the eighteenth century, a transformation began as the seaside traded more, generated complementary services, and encouraged the in-migration of capital and skills to supply these services. The birth of a new state from this base depended, however, on building connections inland, which was still a dangerous and uncertain enterprise. European merchants were an enabling force in doing this. But we cannot understand the process without close attention to geography.