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Society 5.0: A People-centric Super-smart Society
by Hitachi-UTokyo LaboratoryThis open access book introduces readers to the vision on future cities and urban lives in connection with “Society 5.0”, which was proposed in the 5th Basic Science and Technology Plan by Japan’s national government for a technology-based, human-centered society, emerging from the fourth industrial revolution. The respective chapters summarize the findings and suggestions of joint research projects conducted by H-UTokyo Lab. Through the research collaboration and discussion, this book explores the future urban lives under the concept of “Society 5.0”, characterized by the key phrases of data-driven society, knowledge-intensive society, and non-monetary society, and suggests the directionality to which the concept should aim as Japan’s technology-led national vision. Written by Hitachi’s researchers as well as academics from a wide range of fields, including engineering, economics, psychology and philosophy at The University of Tokyo, the book is a must read for members of the general public interested in urban planning, students, professionals and researchers in engineering and economics.
Society and Economics in Europe
by Savvas Katsikides Hardy HanappiThis book takes stock of the lessons to be learned from the experiences of different countries on their way to a transition into a unified Europe. It demonstrates how the project of a unified Europe is a social pilot project that is unique in human history, both with respect to the sheer number of people involved and with respect to the cultural diversity it aims to turn into a progressive advantage. With no historical experience at hand, the transition into a unified Europe is an exploratory process, often risky but sometimes also surprisingly successful. To improve the chances of establishing a successful unification it is particularly important that we learn from the mistakes made so far; and that we learn rapidly, since the forces working against the pilot project of Europe will gain power very fast if the unification success slows down. And as the recent developments in Greece show, the vision of the final goal itself can well change during this exciting quest. Apart from providing the pieces of a mosaic on which a more general theory can be built, this book can be read as a collection of experiences - mistakes as well as triumphs - which should help the European learning process. The structure of the book mirrors Europe's diversity: specific country studies are combined with more general chapters, and quantitatively oriented econometric work is combined with qualitatively oriented sociological studies.
Society and Economy: Framework and Principles
by Mark GranovetterA work of exceptional ambition by the founder of modern economic sociology, this first full account of Mark Granovetter’s ideas stresses that the economy is not a sphere separate from other human activities but is deeply embedded in social relations and subject to the same emotions, ideas, and constraints as religion, science, politics, or law.
Society and Economy in Venezuela: An Overview of the Bolivarian Period (1998-2018) (SpringerBriefs in Sociology)
by Vitor Eduardo SchincariolThis book presents an overview of the economic policies adopted by the Bolivarian governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela between 1998 and 2018, and the economic and social results of these policies. The recent history of Venezuela has attracted much attention due to Chávez’s and Maduro’s self-declared search for socialism since the beginning of the 21st century and the economic trajectory of the country in this period, which experienced significant economic growth during the international oil boom in the first decade of the century, followed by a huge economic crisis in the second decade. The volume adopts an economic history approach, taking into account both economic and social variables to analyze the Venezuelan overall socio-economic performance since 1998. Drawing on official documents and statistics, as well as on the available literature, it presents an empirical analysis of Venezuelan economic and social histories during the Bolivarian period, describing and analyzing the achievements and limits of the policies adopted between 1998 and 2018. Society and Economy in Venezuela: An Overview of the Bolivarian Period (1998-2018) will be a useful introduction to sociologists, political economists, political scientists, economic historians and other social scientists interested in understanding the multiple interrelations between economy and society in Bolivarian Venezuela. “This book offers a thoughtful, committed and illuminating analysis of the socialist experiment in Venezuela. Its strengths and weaknesses are examined in unprecedented detail, in order to identify the drivers and limitation of 'socialism in the 21st century'. An essential work for scholars, students and citizens concerned with Venezuela.” – Alfredo Saad-Filho, King's College London
Society and HRM in China
by Malcolm WarnerThis volume looks at the relationship between society and human resource management (HRM) in China. In doing so it asks how representative the latter is of the former. The contributors argue that there needs to be a minimum degree of consonance between these two variables if HRM is to be sufficiently underpinned by social reality. It is only in a wider framework that ‘people-management’ in general – and in China in particular – can be fully understood, whether through theory or through practice. Society and HRM in China explores the changes in Chinese society over the last century and then goes on to analyse how these changes have shaped China’s HRM. Arguably, HRM did not emerge from the void; it was shaped by the societal culture from which it sprung and the economic forces influencing its institutions and organizations. However, there is very little academic literature about the relationship between contemporary Chinese society and its HRM which isn’t extremely specific. As such, much of the research in this collection is not only relatively representative but also highly cross-sectional. The contributions are all drawn from experts in the field across the disciplines, hailing from a diverse range of national origins and educational institutions. They cover a wide range of topics, approaches and emphases. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of Human Resource Management.
Society and Technology: Opportunities and Challenges (Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organizations and Technology)
by Lechman Ewa Popowska MagdalenaThis book offers broad evidence on how new information and communication technologies (ICT) impact social development and contribute to social welfare. Its aim is to show how new technological solutions may contribute to society’s welfare by encouraging new ‘socially responsible’ initiatives and practices as the broad adoption of new technologies becomes an integral component of organizations, and of the overall economy. Society and Technology: Opportunities and Challenges is designed to provide deep insight into theoretical and empirical evidence on ICT as socially responsible technologies. More specifically, it puts special focus on examining the following: how channels of ICT impact on social progress, environmental sustainability and instability the role of ICT in creating social networks, with positive and negative consequences of networking how ICT encourages education, skills development, institutional development, etc. the ethical aspects of technological progress, and technology management for social corporate responsibility. The book is written primarily for scholars and academic professionals from a wide variety of disciplines that are addressing issues of economic development and growth, social development, and the role of technology progress in broadly defined socioeconomic progress. It is also an invaluable source of knowledge for graduate and postgraduate students, particularly within economic and social development, information and technology, worldwide studies, social policy or comparative economics.
Society as an Interaction Space: A Systemic Approach (Translational Systems Sciences #22)
by Anssi Smedlund Hanna Lehtimäki Petri UusikyläAs digitalization and social media are increasingly blurring the boundaries between traditional societal, political, and economic institutions, this book provides a cross-disciplinary examination of value co-creation. From various standpoints, it examines how institutions contribute to service ecosystems and how digitalization is transforming value co-creation in these ecosystems. Further, the book shares new perspectives on relational dynamics among government, companies, and citizens. These insights fill the gaps between service science and political science by integrating institutional logics into the concept of value co-creation. The book subsequently examines society as an interaction space. Topics discussed include the new logic and transformation mechanisms of economic activities, citizen participation, governance, and policy-making in the face of technological innovations, market-based reforms, and the risk of disconnect between citizens and policy-making. Here the focus is on value co-creation in complex adaptive systems where institutions, individuals, and businesses negotiate value and interests in networked relations. In closing, the book presents a range of empirical case studies on value co-creation, which provide examples of active networked citizenship, innovative governance and policy-making, democratic leadership, and trust-building dialogue among institutions. The studies address the context of Nordic countries, recognized as world-leading democracies. Pursuing a systems approach, the book articulates a social reality composed of interacting and interconnected elements that cannot be captured with only micro or macro levels of analysis. Service ecosystems are considered as configurations of people and technologies embedded in institutionalized rules, cultural meanings, and practices, offering valuable insights into the service-centered view of markets and society. Given the breadth and depth of its coverage, the book offers a valuable resource for all students and scholars interested in understanding and envisioning the future democratic landscape.
The Society of Accountants in Edinburgh, 1854-1914: A Study of Recruitment to a New Profession (Routledge Library Editions: Accounting History #40)
by Stephen P. WalkerThis book, first published in 1988, provides an analysis of recruitment to the new profession of nineteenth-century accountancy, and in doing so, gives an insight into the complex origins and behaviour of the emergent professional classes. Unlike most studies, this is a study of all recruits, not only of those who succeeded in becoming qualified. This permits an analysis of the whole process of recruitment, including the choice of accountancy as a career option and as a vehicle of social mobility.
Society on the Edge: Social Science and Public Policy in the Postwar United States
by Philippe Fontaine Jefferson D. PooleyThe social sciences underwent rapid development in postwar America. Problems once framed in social terms gradually became redefined as individual with regards to scope and remedy, with economics and psychology winning influence over the other social sciences. By the 1970s, both economics and psychology had spread their intellectual remits wide: psychology's concepts suffused everyday language, while economists entered a myriad of policy debates. Psychology and economics contributed to, and benefited from, a conception of society that was increasingly skeptical of social explanations and interventions. Sociology, in particular, lost intellectual and policy ground to its peers, even regarding 'social problems' that the discipline long considered its settled domain. The book's ten chapters explore this shift, each refracted through a single 'problem': the family, crime, urban concerns, education, discrimination, poverty, addiction, war, and mental health, examining the effects an increasingly individualized lens has had on the way we see these problems.
Socio-Cultural Integration in Mergers and Acquisitions: Values And Emotions In The Nordic Approach
by Niina Nummela Mélanie E. Hassett Riikka Harikkala-Laihinen Johanna RaitisTaking a fresh and much-needed perspective on the management of international acquisitions, this book focuses on socio-cultural integration, and in particular the importance of emotions and values. The authors build on the human-centric and typically Nordic approach to mergers and acquisitions by presenting rich empirical cases of cross-border acquisitions conducted by leading Nordic multinationals. This book goes beyond merely stating that successful human integration leads to sociocultural convergence and presents how this can actually be accomplished. The authors offer theoretical approaches and practical solutions which have the potential of improving employee motivation and well-being, and in doing so, ultimately enhancing the chances of successful acquisition outcomes. Providing concrete examples of successful practices for managing socio-cultural integration and facilitating employee commitment, this book will appeal to both scholarly and practitioner audiences.
Socio-Economic Analysis of Arsenic Contamination of Groundwater in West Bengal
by Abhijit Das Joyashree Roy Sayantan ChakrabortiThis book presents a socio-economic analysis of the issues linking technological innovation in providing arsenic-safe drinking water in rural areas. It presents concrete field based experiences of experiments and case studies depicting the plight and sufferings of people due to failed technological deployment strategies over the past two decades in West Bengal, the most arsenic-exposed state in India and also the first to act for remediation of the crisis. One of the greatest challenges in arsenic-exposed zones is to provide sustainable access to reliably arsenic-safe free water. For nearly twenty years the Government of India and national water distribution institutions in collaboration with multi-lateral funding agencies have sought to pump in money, push technology collected through global tenders, and enlist the support of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but their efforts have yielded little success. This book is the outcome of the authors' intensive fieldwork, guided by the conceptual framework of the latest literature on environmental economics and consumer behaviour. It presents a framework and estimates based on field level primary data. Secondary official source-based data are also collated from various scattered sources into a valuable, comprehensive collection. Lastly, the book includes a revealing analysis of factors affecting households' participation.
Socio-Economic Approach to Management: Science-Based Consulting for Sustainability
by Laurent Cappelletti Henri Savall Véronique ZardetThe Socio-Economic Approach to Management (SEAM) is a management methodology for developing the sustainable performance of organizations. It finds its roots in a socially responsible vision of capitalism and its originality is to offer a unique management model useful for sustainably managing people and providing socially responsible consulting, as well as for carrying out research-interventions and creating knowledge. This book is the first to present in a synthetic way and illustrate with case studies the political, managerial and scientific dimensions of SEAM.This methodology has been successfully tested on thousands of companies and organizations from 48 different countries since 1974 and distinguished by prestigious French and American academies. It aims to convert the hidden costs of social dissatisfaction (absenteeism, excessive staff turnover, underproductivity) into economic value for the organization, which can be used to increase salaries, self-financedinvestments, master budgets or remunerate shareholders. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of management, as well as practitioners and consultants.
Socio-Economic Development
by Adam SzirmaiWhy are poor countries poor and rich countries rich? How are wealth and poverty related to changes in health, life expectancy, education, population growth and politics? This non-technical introduction to development studies explores the dynamics of socio-economic development and stagnation in developing countries. Thoroughly updated and revised, this second edition includes new material on the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, the emergence of the BRICS economies, the role of institutions in development and the accelerated growth of economies in Africa and Asia. Taking a comparative approach, Szirmai places contemporary debates within their broader contexts and combines insights and theories from economics, economic history, political science, anthropology and sociology. Each chapter includes comparative statistics and time series for thirty-one developing countries. Assuming no prior knowledge of economics, this book is well-suited for students in interdisciplinary development studies and development economics, for policy-makers and for practitioners pursuing careers in developing countries. Visit www. dynamicsofdevelopment. com for additional resources.
The Socio-Economic Foundations of Sustainable Business: Managing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
by Richard PettingerThis book brings together key aspects of contemporary organisations with regard to the socio-economic foundations of sustainable business. We are now in the middle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution; an unprecedented development in technology and society, driven by social, political and economic demands. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is affecting business, but also has social consequences, as can be seen in the present and evolving patterns of economic activity. In turn, these consequences influence and create crucial and central issues regarding value, sustainability, security and assurance – aspects required and demanded by all areas of society.Based on work assessing the US and UK business sectors, including research conducted at the UCL in conjunction with such diverse organisations as the Bank of England, Google, Facebook and the Antwerp Diamond Exchange, this book addresses the key issues and challenges involved in integrating real and virtual environments. In addition, it uses case studies to illustrate the academic theory, blending industry and scholarly literature.Written by an expert in his field, this book delivers a realistic, practical and academically sound foundation for business, management and organisation studies, while also providing an interdisciplinary view on a transforming society, incorporating technology, IT, economics and sociology.
Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of Genetically Modified Crops: Global Implications Based on Case-Studies from India
by Sachin Chaturvedi Krishna Ravi SrinivasThis book provides a comprehensive overview of socio-economic impact assessments for genetically modified organisms, including genetically modified crops. It features case studies involving Bt cotton and other selected crops with improved traits from six major institutions in India and combines field data with surveys on stakeholder perceptions. It also discusses global trends in the socio-economic assessment of GMOs and reviews the available literature on the economic assessment of GM crops and how various countries have implemented Article 26.1 of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Further, it explores cost–benefit analyses and sociological aspects of socio-economic assessments.Based on this, the book proposes a framework and offers guidelines for socio-economic assessment that can be adapted for various GM crops. Lastly, it examines the relevance of socio-economic impact assessment in light of new applications such as GM mosquitoes and gene drives. Given its scope, the book is of interest to all academics, policymakers, regulators, and general readers concerned about the broader impacts of GM crops and applications like gene drives.
Socio-Economic Insecurity in Emerging Economies: Building new spaces (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies)
by Khayaat Fakier Ellen EhmkeTaking a unique comparative approach to the respective development paths of India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), this book shows that people and governments in all three countries are faced with similar challenges of heightened insecurity, caused by liberalization and structural adjustment. The ways in which governments, as well as individuals and worker organisations in IBSA have responded to these challenges are at the core of this book. The book explores the nature of insecurity in the Global South; the nature of the responses to this insecurity on public and small-scale collective as well as individual level; the potential of these responses to be more than neo-liberal mechanisms to govern and contain the poor and lessons to be learnt from these three countries. The first section covers livelihood strategies in urban and rural areas as individual and small-scale collective response to the condition of insecurity. Insecurity in the countries of the South is characterised by a high degree of uncertainty of the availability of income opportunities. The second section looks at state responses to insecurity and contributions on social protection measures taken by the respective IBSA governments. The third section discusses whether alternative development paths can be identified. The aim is to move beyond ‘denunciatory analysis.’ Livelihood strategies as well as public policies in some of the cases allow for the building of new spaces for agency and contestation of a neo-liberal mainstream which provide emerging and experimental examples. The book develops new thinking on Northern welfare states and their declining trade unions. It argues that these concepts, knowledge and policy innovations are now travelling in three directions, from North to South, from South to North, and between Southern countries. This book provides unique insights for researchers and postgraduate students in development studies, social policy and industrial sociology.
Socio-Economic Issues of Climate Change: A Livelihood Analysis from Nepal
by Luni Piya Keshav Lall Maharjan Niraj Prakash JoshiThis book conducts a holistic analysis of climate change perceptions, vulnerabilities, impacts, and adaptation, based on the primary household-data collected from the Chepang community residing in the rural Mid-Hills of Nepal. Socio-economic and demographic data from the household survey is integrated with meteorological and spatial data to conduct an integrated analysis. Quantitative analysis is also supplemented by qualitative information. Given the context of ongoing climate change, the livelihoods issues of a highly marginalized Chepang community form the center-point of analysis. The book demonstrates that balanced assets possession is a prerequisite to strengthen the adaptive capacity of the households. Furthermore, the ability of translating adaptive capacity into adaptation actions is determined by the households’ ability to correctly perceive the changes and their access to various assets. The book recommends to ensure the availability of non-farm livelihood opportunities along with access to formal/vocational education and skill development training as these are the key factors contributing to reduce the vulnerability. The book concludes that mainstreaming of climate change into development efforts is a must for sustainable development.
Socio-economic Mobility and Low-status Minorities: Slow roads to progress (Routledge Advances in Social Economics)
by Jacob MeermanThis book concentrates on ethnic minorities such as former slaves, outcastes and indigenous peoples dispossessed of homeland. These groups are universally without power, usually undereducated, and always victims of their fellow citizens. The book asks why these socially excluded groups remain at the bottom of their social hierarchies as the poorest of the poor, even in nations long committed to equal opportunity. Their slow progress has four causes: obviously discrimination and poor education, but also low economic growth and cultural heritage. Low growth limits revenues for schools as well as new job opportunities, and perpetuates traditional exploitative social relations and customs. Traumatic histories of enslavement or conquest may induce behaviours by victims that reduce upward mobility. Together these four interacting variables suggest a "mobility model" that explains the impasse. The book develops and applies this model to interpret and compare the mobility history of five stigmatized, low-status ethnic groups: U.S. African Americans, Japan’s Burakumin, Afro-Cubans, India’s Dalits (Untouchables) and Bolivia’s Highland Indians. The book also compares actions by governments and the groups themselves to overcome barriers to progress, including job quotas, boycotts, mass protests, and the unique kangaroo courts of Japan’s Burakumim. Meerman’s unusual cross-disciplinary approach and fascinating comparative studies of success and failure will appeal to scholars, development practitioners, and advocates working on issues of discrimination, poverty, equity and inequality in an ethnic context.
Socio-Economic Segregation in European Capital Cities: East Meets West (Regions and Cities)
by Tiit Tammaru Maarten Van Ham Szymon Marcińczak Sako MusterdGrowing inequalities in Europe are a major challenge threatening the sustainability of urban communities and the competiveness of European cities. While the levels of socio-economic segregation in European cities are still modest compared to some parts of the world, the poor are increasingly concentrating spatially within capital cities across Europe. An overlooked area of research, this book offers a systematic and representative account of the spatial dimension of rising inequalities in Europe. This book provides rigorous comparative evidence on socio-economic segregation from 13 European cities. Cities include Amsterdam, Athens, Budapest, London, Milan, Madrid, Oslo, Prague, Riga, Stockholm, Tallinn, Vienna and Vilnius. Comparing 2001 and 2011, this multi-factor approach links segregation to four underlying universal structural factors: social inequalities, global city status, welfare regimes and housing systems. Hypothetical segregation levels derived from those factors are compared to actual segregation levels in all cities. Each chapter provides an in-depth and context sensitive discussion of the unique features shaping inequalities and segregation in the case study cities. The main conclusion of the book is that the spatial gap between the poor and the rich is widening in capital cities across Europe, which threatens to harm the social stability of European cities. This book will be a key reference on increasing segregation and will provide valuable insights to students, researchers and policy makers who are interested in the spatial dimension of social inequality in European cities. A PDF version of the introduction and conclusion are available Open Access at www.tandfebooks.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license.
Socio-economics: Toward a New Synthesis (Ethical Economy Ser.)
by Amitai Etzioni Paul R. LawrenceThis work is organized in seven sections around major themes of socio-economics. The first section outlines socio-economics in an historical perspective, drawing on the "Methodenstreit" in the German school of economics at the turn of the century. Four additional essays view economic behaviour from the perspective of psychology, sociology and values outside the realm of economics. The second section of the book explores the process of choice and goals made by the variety of economic factors, among them factors that influence choices, values and motivations outside economics. The next two sections, each containing three papers, examine executive leadership and entrepreneurship from the broader socio-economic perspective. Section five includes papers that deal with the role of institutions in the modern political economy. It develops an institutional theory of markets, firms, human values in economic behaviour and investment in ethnic goals and morality. Section six focuses on the modern corporate culture considering collective human capital. The final three papers examine the boundaries that embrace the processes and activities of firms. They consider the bonds and relationships that develop between firms and organizations in the modern political economy.
Socio-economics of Personalized Medicine in Asia
by Shirley SunThe second decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed a surging interest in personalized medicine with the concomitant promise to enable more precise diagnosis and treatment of disease and illness, based upon an individual’s unique genetic makeup. In this book, my goal is to contribute to a growing body of literature on personalized medicine by tracing and analyzing how this field has blossomed in Asia. In so doing, I aim to illustrate how various social and economic forces shape the co-production of science and social order in global contexts. This book shows that there are inextricable transnational linkages between developing and developed countries and also provides a theoretically guided and empirically grounded understanding of the formation and usage of particular racial and ethnic human taxonomies in local, national and transnational settings.
Socio-Legal Approaches to International Economic Law: Text, Context, Subtext
by Amanda Perry-KessarisThis collection explores the analytical, empirical and normative components that distinguish socio-legal approaches to international economic law both from each other, and from other approaches. It pays particular attention to the substantive focus (what) of socio-legal approaches, noting that they go beyond the text to consider context and, often, subtext. In the process of identifying the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ (analytical and empirical tools) of their own socio-legal approaches, contributors to this collection reveal why they or anyone else ought to bother--the many reasons ‘why’ it is important, for theory and for practice, to take a social legal approach to international economic law.
Socio-Tech Innovation: Harnessing Technology for Social Good
by Latha Poonamallee Joanne Scillitoe Simy JoyThis book defines socio-technological innovation and lays out different aspects of technology innovation and adoption literature as applied to socio-tech innovation and entrepreneurship. Socio-tech innovation refers to novel solutions that involve development or adoption of technological innovations to address social and/or environmental problems with a view towards creating benefit for the larger whole rather than just for the owners or investors. Unlike conventional technological innovation, socio-tech innovation either develops a product specifically for underserved markets and adopts a model in which the market is not an afterthought but the rai-son d’etre. Social ventures have not been as successful in scaling up, though technology innovation-led ventures have; therefore, meaningful actionable insights that can help social ventures scale up successfully can be gleaned by this process. This book offers researchers in innovation and entrepreneurship programs a unique and interdisciplinary approach to studying social innovation that is grounded in technology innovation. This book features a series of socio-tech venture cases that illustrate these dynamics and can be used in undergraduate and graduate courses.
Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles for Agri-Food Systems Transformation (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Christopher B. Barrett Tim Benton Jessica Fanzo Mario Herrero Rebecca J. Nelson Elizabeth Bageant Edward Buckler Karen Cooper Isabella Culotta Shenggen Fan Rikin Gandhi Steven James Mark Kahn Laté Lawson-Lartego Jiali Liu Quinn Marshall Daniel Mason-D'Croz Alexander Mathys Cynthia Mathys Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou Alesha Miller Kamakhya Misra Andrew Mude Jianbo Shen Lindiwe Majele Sibanda Claire Song Roy Steiner Philip Thornton Stephen WoodThis open access book is the result of an expert panel convened by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and Nature Sustainability. The panel tackled the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 head-on, with respect to the global systems that produce and distribute food. The panel’s rigorous synthesis and analysis of existing research leads compellingly to multiple actionable recommendations that, if adopted, would simultaneously lead to healthy and nutritious diets, equitable and inclusive value chains, resilience to shocks and stressors, and climate and environmental sustainability.
Sociocultural Perspectives on Youth Ethical Consumerism
by Giuliano Reis Michael Mueller Rachel Gisewhite Luiz Siveres Renato BritoThis exciting new book advances current practice-based and theoretical knowledge around how youth defines and engages with consumerism to provoke a larger conversation within science and environmental education. It is also geared towards unveiling those literacy praxes that can assist youth to adopt more ethically-oriented consumerist habits. More specifically, this book studies how youth's participation in the global consumer market intersects with media technologies, new literacies, as well as science and the environment from sociocultural perspectives. In addition, it considers how school science has mediated youth participation in hyper-consumerism, from food and technology to shelter and transportation. This important and timely book is a must-read for those interested in topics such as critical youth studies, critical media literacy, STEM, arts-based research, STSE education, citizenship education, cultural studies, policy studies, curriculum studies, socio-scientific issues, technology, sustainability, food studies, social justice, poverty, and consumer behaviour. A wide range of science, technology and environmental educators from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Netherlands and the United States have combined their perspectives to produce this exciting, innovative, timely and important book. It should be essential reading for all teachers, teacher educators and curriculum developers keen to address key issues raised by a commitment to assist students in refining their understanding of what constitutes socially, culturally, ethically and politically responsible consumer practices and supporting them in formulating and engaging in effective individual and collective action. Derek Hodson, Emeritus Professor of Science Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Professor of Science Education at The University of Auckland (New Zealand), and Founding Editor of the Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education (CJSMTE). The authors in the book deconstruct and analyse intricate economic, sociopolitical and affective networks that are behind the cycles of production, distribution and consumption of objects that are present in youngsters' daily lives and their attitudes towards them. Apart from breaking new ground by proposing and discussing socioculturally informed research about the topic, the book connects with pedagogical approaches that value critical perspectives on the nature of the relationship between science, technology, society and environment. It is a must-read for both researchers and practitioners interested in issues related to sustainability and citizenship education. Isabel Martins, Professor of Science Education, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro/ Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).