An eye-opening story of the people who make the census, the United States' largest and most consequential dataset, and the growing threats to their crucial work.

By many measures, the US census is the government's largest non-wartime operation, and one of the world's oldest and biggest data-making endeavors. The 2020 census required more than a decade of planning and technical work-not to mention managing nearly a quarter of a million temporary workers simultaneously-to collect data about the American public. That data was then processed to count each of 331,449,281 residents once-and only once-and in the right place. The operation is also one of the country's most consequential. Census data determine how political power and federal funding are allocated. Census data make politics, and consequently, politics make census data. In this urgent book, danah boyd explores what it took for the Census Bureau to make the 2020 census, amidst a global pandemic and natural disasters, and while navigating political forces that constrained the budget, micro-managed the schedule, and attacked statisticians' methods.

With rare insider access to the Census Bureau, boyd observed and interviewed hundreds of government civil servants who made the 2020 census. By documenting the perspectives of government workers, Data Are Made, Not Found provides a rare glimpse into what it takes to make democracy's data. Each chapter reveals a different challenge-ranging from the last-minute fights about a citizenship question to the not-so-helpful help of well-intended stakeholders to avoid undercounts-and shows how civil servants responded to each problem, controversy, and hurdle. Boyd shows how many of the challenges that the Census Bureau faced in 2020 resulted from decades of political operatives, data users, and various stakeholders playing what boyd calls "Jenga politics," weakening the administrative state for short-term political gains by removing support and adding more requirements.

Civil servants saved the 2020 census, but future censuses-and other data-making efforts related to elections, health, and the economy-are precarious. Boyd's message is clear and compelling: protecting democracy means protecting the people and institutions that produce this data.

This book attempts to answer the most fundamental questions of BRI by applying economic methods: What is, what to do, and how to do. Whether in China or the international community, whether in academia or in decision-making circles, there is no consensus on these issues, even though BRI has been around for eight years. As a result, there are many misunderstandings and suspicions about BRI, which have become a major obstacle to its smooth development. As an academic study, this book is not a simple interpretation of the official Chinese BRI representation, but an analysis of it is based on a unified theoretical framework. In addition to tracing the evolution of BRI and the cognition of the international community, the focus of this book is to analyze the attributes, positioning, and governance structure of BRI, as well as to discuss the internal and external risks it faces and its future development direction. The author starts from the development orientation of BRI (different from the current rule orientation of global governance) and makes a normative definition of it. Emphasizing development orientation does not mean that BRI does not need rules, but to jointly formulate rules according to the needs of development. Therefore, one of the directions to promote the high-quality development of BRI is institutionalization.

The transformation of Asia demonstrated in its demographic transition, social progress, economic development, and technological innovation has been phenomenal. Dragon Innovation: Shenzhen is one of the first comprehensive analyses on the formation of China's technology hub, Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area, in a multidimensional and multicultural society in the 21st century amid global trade war and great power competition. It examines how and why Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area emerged as Asia's leading technology cluster from historical, cultural, political, institutional, business and social perspectives to present an innovation experience that differs from the widely known western innovation hubs. In-person interviews with Shenzhen local government officials, renowned Shenzhen business leaders including Huawei's Ren Zhengfei, Tencent's Pony Ma Huateng, and the chief scientists at major technology & AI companies as well as EV companies including BYD make this book authentic and outstanding. Interviews with tech investors, academics, salespeople, grassroots entrepreneurs and migrant professionals make this book rich, vivid and informative. This book will interest scholars, policymakers, development practitioners, technologists, transnational entrepreneurs and global investors.

This book tackles a critical question. Why has the world struggled so much to coordinate policy to address climate change, despite political and scientific consensus? Despite landmark agreements and expanding knowledge, emissions have fallen unevenly and progress has repeatedly stalled or reversed.

Democracy or Carbon Oligarchy? explains that failure by focusing on domestic politics: how institutions distribute power, how interest groups exploit "access points," and why countries with similar wealth and technology diverge. Moving beyond arguments about mere political will, it situates energy and climate outcomes within the institutional architectures of industrialized oil super-producers: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Norway. Shum advances a neopluralist theory of climate politics, arguing that policy is shaped by the strategic capture of institutional venues by carbon-intensive interests. He shows how separation of powers, federalism, party systems, and electoral rules configure opportunities for a de facto carbon oligarchy. By mapping where binding decisions are made and who can reach them, the book offers a generalizable framework for diagnosing blockages, explaining cross-national variation, and identifying leverage points for sustaining ambitious climate policy over time.

How the geopolitical behavior of states is closely related to the nature of their political systems

Today's world is characterized by an unstable coexistence of empires, nation-states, and democracies. In this book, Gerard Roland examines these three fundamentally different institutional systems and considers whether the international behavior of nations is influenced by the nature of their political regimes. He explains that until the nineteenth century, international relations were driven by rivalries among competing empires; as empires started to disintegrate, they were replaced by nation-states, some of which became democracies. The nation-state project supported by today's extreme right promotes ethnic homogeneity within a country's borders, while democracies are based on universal values of citizenship. Interactions between countries with such essentially different political systems, Roland shows, are seldom harmonious and likely to evolve into cultural clashes and military conflict.

Drawing on his expertise in political and comparative economics, Roland analyzes why and how countries' geopolitical behavior-their actions and attitudes regarding war, peace, expansionism, and trade-is closely linked to their political systems. In the long run, he argues, the ethnically homogenous nation-state is doomed because of the strong economic inefficiencies entailed by economic nationalism and the lack of openness to immigration, trade, and foreign direct investment. A better path for the future of the international order, Roland suggests, would be a world of small democracies building supranational institutions on the basis of commonly accepted rules.

The Last Purge explores the political ramifications of what is now known as the Cotton Affair, the largest and final purge in the post-Stalin Soviet Union. A significant yet underexamined episode of Uzbekistan's contemporary history, the Cotton Affair was a drawn-out judicial and political imbroglio that grew out of falsified cotton production data and corruption. Under cotton king Sharaf Rashidov, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, the country more than doubled its production of cotton, the nation's principal cash crop. When the USSR's tenth five-year plan demanded an annual production of six million tons of raw cotton, however, production became a matter of political survival for the Uzbek ruling elite. To cope, they began hiding inefficiencies through bribes and falsifying cotton production data. Moscow's eventual crackdown in the 1980s implicated 58,000 officials - 20,000 of whom faced criminal prosecution - and overwhelmed Uzbekistan's institutions.

Cucciolla sets the Cotton Affair at the center of Uzbekistan's transition from Soviet republic to independent state. Through the use of untapped Russian and Uzbek sources, he traces how the Cotton Affair became a sensitive identity issue of revenge and resistance against former rulers that served to legitimize the new Uzbek president's regime and define his relations with local power networks. In recovering the often sordid details of this critical event in the USSR's political history, Cucciolla offers fresh insights into the contradictions as well as consequences of perestroika and the disintegration of the Soviet Union from the perspective of its periphery.

This volume is the first to assemble a wide-ranging body of research on the history of a certain pattern of theorizing about cognizing as a kind of being, or even being itself. As such, it addresses a notable silence in contemporary scholarship about the mind, and even about the history of philosophy of mind, which stands in contrast with its appearances throughout the historical tradition of philosophy. This book therefore enhances with historical richness the growing interest in related concepts such as idealism and pansychism. The original research presented in the book advances our understanding of the philosophical richness of various concepts of "cognizing as being" and draws on both Western and non-Western philosophical traditions. In doing so the books fosters a dialogue among these interconnected philosophical traditions that includes Indian philosophy, Aristotelian and Neoplatonic traditions, medieval Latin and Islamic traditions, Renaissance and early modern Platonism, varieties of early modern panpsychism or pannoeticism, German idealism, and early phenomenology. By bringing these together these collected works provide an illustrative model that will help scholars "see" a long-overlooked insight about mind across various historical traditions, and spark new ideas about how this approach might manifest in unexpected places. This volume is of interest to scholars working in the history of philosophy, the philosophy of mind and ancient philosophy.

In this celebration of chapters, New Perspectives on African Business covers terrain across Africa that has rarely been examined, particularly outside familiar settings, in a way that is both insightful and engaging, answering the mystery around how business is conducted across the continent and the associated challenges.

In this highly curated collection, scholars Harrison and Omeihe connect theory to context and draw on diverse perspectives to deepen understanding by bringing together research from leading African scholars. Drawing from insights across key disciplines, the authors examine themes such as entrepreneurship, leadership in cultural contexts, economic development, and less explored areas including tourism, CSR, and SMEs through the lens of specific countries across the continent.

This volume is of benefit to both undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as advanced scholars, opening avenues for future contributions by pointing to areas where further research is needed to develop the field.

The New Frontiers in African Business and Society book series is dedicated to the exploration of theoretical and conceptual discussions that consolidate conventional knowledge about Africa. The purpose of the series is to invite new reflections on the nature of business and society across parts of Africa. The series contributes by interrogating the socially constructed practices, assumptions and beliefs which provide meaning for scholarship across Africa.

This book explores the Innovation Ecosystems enabled by digital technologies from the start-ups perspective in the framework of Circular Economy. Bringing together contributions from geographically-diverse entrepreneurship scholars, it offers a unique startup-centric lens, investigating how emerging ventures collaborate with corporations, navigate power asymmetries, and leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence, IoT, and data analytics to drive sustainable innovation. Through a blend of empirical case studies and conceptual frameworks, the book addresses key themes including startup-corporate collaboration dynamics, coopetition strategies, and digital platform governance. It also examines the impact of digital technologies on decision-making, resilience, and adaptability. Ideal for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, this book provides insights into how startups can catalyze systemic change and accelerate the transition toward sustainable, tech-driven innovation ecosystems.

An indispensable introduction to legal reasoning, updated for today's political and legal environment.

Since it was first published nearly five decades ago, Reason in Law has become the starting point for understanding legal reasoning, a critical component of the rule of law. The editors show how judges can integrate all the elements of a case to persuasively explain their rulings-and, even more importantly, why they sometimes fail to do so. Drawing on cases old and new, Reason in Law enables readers to become sophisticated "judges of judging."

Now in its tenth edition, Reason in Law includes a new chapter on the increasingly contentious and politically consequential field of administrative law and addresses recent developments in the American legal landscape, including growing conservatism in the federal judiciary and the flood of lawsuits brought against the second Trump administration. It also analyzes new cases on the First Amendment rights of high schoolers, transgender civil rights, the responsibilities universities have for student safety, Donald Trump's sweeping claims of executive power, and historic Supreme Court decisions expanding the rights of gun owners and allowing states to criminalize abortion. As always, Reason in Law connects legal theory with empirical research on the American judicial system, showing how trustworthy legal reasoning helps preserve social peace and the rule of law.

A thoughtful and provocative meditation on both the potential and limits of constitutionalism.

In the early twenty-first century, constitutionalism confronts numerous pressures and critiques. Some prominent critics are concerned that constitutionalism's modern form, in which high courts play a large role, limits popular self-governance. By committing their nations to detailed social and economic policies-from neoliberal requirements for balanced budgets to constitutionalized social welfare and environmental rights-many modern constitutions might make promises they cannot keep and be unduly rigid in the face of changing social, economic, and environmental conditions. Meanwhile, the rise of proto-authoritarian elected leaders around the world shows that constitutions are vulnerable to, and may even enable, democratic backsliding.

Mark Tushnet and Bojan Bugaric argue that addressing each of these serious concerns through constitutional design and innovation is potentially valuable, but paradoxically, every remedy also carries with it the possibility that it will intensify the very conditions it seeks to ameliorate. Instead, Tushnet and Bugaric propose a "thin" idea of constitutionalism and suggest that we should scale back our expectations for what constitutionalism can achieve. Political mobilization, led by people attuned to the economic and cultural causes of democratic backsliding, is a better bet.

Civil Societies, Uncivil States examines why governments around the world have turned against the nongovernmental organizations they once welcomed-and how they choose their methods of repression.

In the decades following the Cold War, NGOs became central players in global governance, buoyed by a liberal international order that rewarded states for supporting civil society. That openness proved short-lived. From Russia's foreign agent laws to India's crackdowns on foreign funding, governments increasingly viewed NGOs as threats. Suparna Chaudhry argues that whether governments choose violent crackdowns against NGOs or subtler administrative restrictions depends on two factors: whether an NGO poses long-term risks to state authority, and how visible it is internationally. A state's relationship with the liberal international order shapes which strategy it pursues.

Chaudhry's findings show that administrative crackdowns allow states to maintain democratic facades while systematically dismantling infrastructures of accountability. She reveals that, paradoxically, the very successes of transnational advocacy networks in pressuring governments to reform incentivized more sophisticated tools of repression. Unflinching in its analyses, Civil Societies, Uncivil States asks us to understand how states are silencing dissent before it is too late.

Russian Subject, Muslim Monarch focuses on how, within the emirate of Bukhara, sovereignty was shaped as much by paperwork and quotidian entanglements as by conquest and diplomacy.

By uncovering the paper trail generated by the complex correspondence between Bukhara and Russia, James Pickett reveals figures and voices often missing from other sources. Unlike sanitized court chronicles, the Bukharan chancery records preserve experiences of women navigating patriarchal legal systems, religious minorities seeking state protection, and ordinary subjects petitioning for justice. Pickett provides an unprecedented window into semicolonialism's lived experience, even as many informal systems remained operative during revolution and civil war, after the Russian Empire had ceased to exist.

The emirate of Bukhara represented the apogee of Perso-Islamic society and government at its twilight and as an edge case of colonialism, equally revealing of both phenomena. Bukhara distinguished itself within the Russian Empire through steadfast loyalty, fitting seamlessly into imperial structures bearing many parallels to those already embedded in Central Asia. Russian Subject, Muslim Monarch makes this unique paper trail speak to larger questions about the nature of power and the modern state.

This book is intended as a reference guide for aspiring researchers and postgraduate students of West African history, as well as anyone fascinated by the region's material culture. Rarely encountered or studied, edged weapons from the Kingdom of Dahomey on West Africa's Guinea Coast are often misidentified, despite their striking morphological characteristics. This book collates the features and characteristics that identify these unique weapons, which date from the kingdom's rise in the early 18th century to its demise against France in 1894. The result is an exploration of the remarkable creativity and improvisational quality of these swords and the role they once played as items of regalia, as well as instruments of war and execution, in the kingdom's highly centralized military bureaucracy.

The primary tool used in this study is morphological analysis, drawing on an investigation of sword forms from around the world. However, other research techniques have also been employed. These span the full spectrum of archaeological investigation - from technological analysis in high-tech labs to 'history of art' methodologies designed to unpack the symbolism and craft of these unique objects.

The Kingdom of Dahomey was a truly remarkable kingdom. Not only was it the most significant slave-trading nation in West Africa, and played a disproportionate part in shaping the diasporic African cultures that took seed in the Americas, its unique structures and institutions are finally gaining popular attention internationally. In recent years, the famed agodjie - a female fighting force like no other in known history - has become a major topic of conversation, featuring in movies and blogs on a grand scale. The swords here played a central part in that history - in human sacrifices, as weapons and sidearms to Dahomey's soldiers, including the famed Amazon women warriors, and as objects of regalia for a powerful and unique dynasty.

This book examines Haiti's turbulent political landscape by exploring the socio-political and cultural forces that have shaped the nation's trajectory. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it explores the underdevelopment of Haiti in three epochal frames; first, as a former colonial territory; second, as a singular independent nation amongst colonial territories; and third, as a nation in constant quagmire at the hands of foreign military interventions. The narrative reveals Haiti's enduring vulnerability, identifying both internal and external factors that illuminate the perceived failures of the Haitian political class.

The book further investigates institutional mechanisms that perpetuate political instability, demonstrating how weak leadership has relied on repression, corruption, and malversive practices to sustain power, thereby deepening Haiti's structural fragility. By deploying key concepts such as structural vulnerability, heterodoxicality, macoutization, demounization, and political barons, Sylvain foregrounds cultural dynamics and socio-political practices that have reinforced systemic dysfunction. Through a dialectical and critical analytical framework, the work accentuates the complexity of Haiti's long struggle for democracy and the persistent conflicts that undermine it. Drawing on a wide range of respected scholars, the book enriches contemporary debates on Haitian politics, moving beyond conventional Haitianist and Caribbeanist frameworks to offer a transformative understanding of Haiti's political condition.

This book examines how various methods of digital communication have entered the domain of EU Civil Procedure, with a primary focus on the service of documents, electronic submissions, the taking of evidence, and videoconferencing. It offers a comprehensive overview of legal issues surrounding the use of digital technology in the aforementioned areas and draws insight from the national legal doctrines of 15 EU Member States and select candidate countries. On the one hand, the research employs the comparative legal method to draw conclusions on commonalities and differences, as well as prospects for future approximation of laws. On the other hand, the book addresses open issues at the EU (supranational) level. The research is rooted in the observation that a paradigm shift from traditional to digital means of communication between courts and other judicial partakers is currently taking place. This shift is manifested through a variety of technologies and affects a wide legal landscape. The EU is heralding the incorporation of these developments in its latest legislation on cross-border disputes. The research deals with analyzing both existing (digital and traditional) and prospective means of communication in national and cross-border disputes. The book identifies problems in the national and EU legal frameworks and provide potential solutions for tackling these problems in the current or assess prospects for future developments.

This book analyzes the institutional foundations, global expansion, and investor dynamics of green bonds in Japan, China, and beyond. Beginning with the evolution of international standards-most notably the Green Bond Principles-it traces how GB issuance surged after the Paris Agreement and how governments, municipalities, and industries have embraced the market. Drawing on original surveys and empirical models, the book uncovers what truly motivates investors. In Japan, individual investors reveal a powerful blend of environmental values and social responsibility that often outweighs financial return. In China, institutional investors show strong demand shaped by policy signals, project transparency, and certification practices. Rich in data and comparative insight, this volume illuminates the forces propelling the green bond market and offers an essential guide for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to understand or shape the future of sustainable finance.

An incisive account of how equality transformed from an abstract ideal into a concrete social and political vision, thanks to seventeenth-century English dissidents like the Levellers and the political philosophers they inspired.

Today, political theorists and philosophers treat as axiomatic the claim that all persons are equal. Dig deeper, however, and what we mean by equality-and what it demands from us, politically and otherwise-is far from obvious. Does it mean that we are all the same, and so the same standards should apply indifferently to everyone? Or does it mean that we are all different in ways similarly deserving of respect? These questions, and many more, reflect the profound ambiguities and contradictions that have riddled the history of the idea of equality.

First Among Equals examines a radical turning point in that history. Since antiquity, influential legal and philosophical traditions have held that all humans are fundamentally equal. Yet these claims proved surprisingly at home in a world defined by social hierarchy, political exclusion, and enslavement. In seventeenth-century England, the meaning-and practical circumstances-of equality began to change. Political philosopher Teresa Bejan traces this transformation, revealing how equality finally became a concrete and actionable political ideal.

Crucially, Bejan shows that influential early modern theorists of equality-chief among them Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and the early feminist Mary Astell-were responding to the increasingly radical visions proffered by contemporary social movements like the Levellers, Diggers, and Quakers. Inspired by the Leveller leader John Lilburne, these movements insisted that equality must be a basis on which ordinary men and women could demand to stand shoulder to shoulder with elites. These early modern activists and philosophers can still enchant us today, Bejan argues, while also helping us to restore the power of equality as a political ideal.

This book offers a comprehensive guide to the transformative power of green finance, circular economy principles, and digital technologies in driving sustainable urban development. Through global case studies and expert analysis, it explores how municipalities can leverage green bonds, how circular economy policies can be scaled, and how digital platforms-from AI to blockchain-can accelerate the shift to a greener, more resilient economy. Designed for policymakers, urban planners, investors, and sustainability professionals, the book offers actionable strategies and forward-looking roadmaps at the intersection of finance, technology, and environmental stewardship. Featuring a global cast of contributors from both academia and practice, it will be of particular interest to academics, investors, and policymakers engaged in green finance, sustainable development, and alternative financing.

This book offers a comprehensive and structured exploration of how financial systems are being reshaped to support the net-zero transition. It guides readers through the evolving architecture of standards, instruments, and market mechanisms that underpin climate-aligned capital flows. Using an accessible but conceptually rigorous approach, it distinguishes climate finance from green and sustainable finance and examines key tools such as corporate and sovereign green bonds, blue finance, and carbon markets.

What sets this volume apart is its integrative perspective: it combines theoretical clarity, policy analysis, and empirical depth to trace the journey of climate finance from conception to implementation. It also explores underexamined topics such as carbon as an anchor asset and the role of climate finance in global monetary dynamics, including RMB internationalization.

Designed for scholars, graduate students, policymakers, and financial professionals, this book provides clear conceptual frameworks and evidence-based insights. It is particularly valuable for readers interested in finance-driven climate transitions and the institutional design of net-zero finance.

Key features include:

1. Provides a comprehensive analysis of climate finance instruments and regulatory systems.

2. Offers a structured treatment bridging theory, policy, and market practice.

This book brings together perspectives on privileged migration and highly skilled migration, illustrating how these concepts intersect with gender, ethnicity, and life course. Highly skilled migrants are often defined as those who have tertiary education, while privileged migrants possess agency and a relative position of power compared to local communities. Despite their relatively privileged status due to their occupations, these migrants face various barriers in their daily lives. Thus, experiences of privilege and precarity can coexist. Highly skilled migrants can encounter discrimination and employ cultural repertoires to navigate and mitigate these challenges. Drawing on over 70 interviews with highly skilled migrants in Czechia conducted in 2024, this book aims to uncover their lived experiences and coping strategies. This book will appeal to researchers and scholars in sociology and the social sciences more broadly. It will also be of interest to students in migration studies as well as to policymakers in Central and Eastern Europe.

Enhanced Cooperation Revisited offers a detailed and thought-provoking examination of one of the EU's most discussed yet rarely applied tools for differentiated integration. Situated between supranational ambition and national sovereignty, enhanced cooperation allows groups of Member States to adopt EU law among them when unanimity proves to be out of reach -without changing the Treaties or creating opt-outs. The book explores enhanced cooperation as a legal and political mechanism that enables integration through flexibility. Departing from a thorough, yet innovative legal analysis and incorporating interdisciplinary insights, the study presents a fresh typology of enhanced cooperation uses, proposes innovative interpretations of its legal framework, and explores options like fast-track procedures and conditional participation, as well as a field-map of legal areas suitable for enhanced cooperation. A novel proposal for "incentivised cooperation" suggests a targeted Treaty amendment to make the mechanism more promising as a facilitating tool in the most contested policy areas. Enhanced Cooperation Revisited casts new light on a little-used but powerful tool in the EU's integration arsenal-one that may yet help the European Union in reconciling unity and diversity in the years ahead.

An authoritative introduction to strategy-its enduring essentials, its inherent challenges, and the ways it will change in the twenty-first century

We live in a world in which America's previous dominance has disappeared, violent states seek to remake the global order, and war itself has taken new forms. The Strategist is the definitive guide to the use of military means to achieve political ends. In this incisive book, Eliot Cohen addresses the deceptively straightforward questions at the heart of strategy, the reasons why strategists often choose badly, and the ways in which strategy, inevitably imperfect, can be improved.

Who is the enemy? What are our means? What is the sequence in which we should act? Why do we believe we will succeed? These are some of the seemingly elementary questions all strategists must answer, and success or failure rests on choices that may also seem simple, such as selecting campaigns and deciding when to launch a war and when to stop it. Yet devising effective strategy, while achievable, is extremely difficult. Cohen draws on illuminating examples from history as well as his own experience as a strategic adviser to government to explain why. He demonstrates how to mitigate these limitations through habits of thought and qualities of character that enable a strategist to make the best possible decisions under conditions of profound uncertainty.

We wish to be done with war, but unfortunately war is not done with us. At a time of radical change in geopolitics and military technology, The Strategist sheds light on the perils before us, and ways to cope with them.

This book offers a clear and insightful guide to the evolving role of AI in modern marketing. Synthesizing extensive research with high-level executive interviews, the author reveals how AI excels at personalization, automation, and data-driven optimization, yet remains constrained by its lack of emotion, intuition, and genuine understanding. Through compelling narrative examples, the text illustrates the transformative potential of AI alongside its ethical and strategic pitfalls, including the amplification of bias and the erosion of brand authenticity. Ultimately, the author argues that AI is not a replacement for human marketers but a catalyst that demands human creativity, empathy, and ethical judgment. This book provides leaders, practitioners, and scholars with a vital framework for harnessing AI responsibly to enhance performance while safeguarding core human values.