The volume includes comparative and comprehensive discussions on anti-corruption policies of governments and anti-corruption agencies across Europe. Compared to existing literature that focuses either on general and theoretical aspects related to corruption or on country-specific experiences, this volume provides an interdisciplinary and broad overview of corruption prevention policies and measures undertaken by major European member states, relying both on literature and on institutional documentation of national anti-corruption agencies, which greatly contribute to shaping anti-corruption policy directions. In so doing, it advances the existing theoretical agenda of corruption studies and policies, situating it within wider disciplinary fields. This volume is especially concerned with the interrelationship between good administration, integrity, ethical behaviour and corruption; the role of transparency and digitalisation in preventing corruption and ensuring rights, efficiency and impartiality in the public administration; the measurement of corruption, with specific reference to preventative measures and indicators of administrative anti-corruption efforts; big data, block chains, and artificial intelligence; public management codes of ethics, performance targets and skills, and their role in tackling and preventing corruption; and public procurement, transparency and anti-bribery measures in the European public procurement system. This volume is of interest to graduate students and researchers in political sociology, political science, European corruption law, international relations, public policy, and social statistics.

Written by one of the world's leading scholars in the field, this book provides a unique perspective on the connections between energy justice and human rights. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the author offers an accessible discussion about the implementation of energy justice in practice. The book explores the rise of justice issues in the energy sector, the interdisciplinary nature of energy justice, the economics of energy justice and provides a practical case study on distributive justice. The penultimate chapter focuses on human rights and energy justice in a world first, and explores the topic from the perspective of the opportunity of last resort. This 'opportunity of last resort' is the national courts and is the place where societies can seek to have justice enforced through a variety of human rights being protected. Finally, energy justice risks are highlighted alongside the author's proposed framework for the next generation of energy justice scholars.

Sociology as Everyday Life: Voices from the Field features carefully selected readings that provide students with unique insight into the challenges faced by practicing sociologists. Students explore the study and practice of sociology from a highly practical point of view, cultivating a better understanding of how sociology impacts our perceptions of the world and our place within it. The articles within the anthology illuminate the role of theory in understanding complex human behavior and also provide readers with insight as to how social scientists conduct research. Over the course of 10 topical sections, students read about the roles of values in shaping an individual's beliefs and worldviews, the importance of groups to individuals and society, rule breakers in society and questions of deviance, whether race and ethnicity influence social interaction, the relationship between religious beliefs and human behavior, and more. Engaging and enlightening, Sociology as Everyday Life provides students with modern perspectives from the field regarding critical topics of today. It is an ideal resource for foundational courses in sociology.

A Brief Introduction to Sociology from a Christian Perspective provides students with sociological tools to help them better understand social phenomena. The author integrates elements of faith throughout the texts and allows readers to supplement their biblical exegesis with social and cultural exegesis. Each chapter of the book is centered on a core theme and begins with excerpts from scripture and personal anecdotes to stimulate students' critical thought, highlight major concepts, and draw connections between elements of Christianity and sociology. The opening chapter illustrates how sociology and Christianity can be synergistic rather than mutually exclusive. Students learn why sociology is important and are introduced to early scholars who founded the discipline, as well as key sociological concepts, including the sociological imagination, conflict and integration, and more. Additional chapters explore various methods of inquiry and issues related to race and ethnicity, social class and inequality, sex and gender, and groups and institutions. The final chapter speaks to the future of sociology with an exploration into computational sociology and complexity science. Featuring an approachable and faith-based introduction to the discipline, A Brief Introduction to Sociology from a Christian Perspective is both an ideal and unique supplementary resource for foundational courses in sociology.

This book is about skateboard video and experimental ways of thinking about cities. It makes a provocative argument to consider skate video as an archive of the city from below. Here 'below' has a dual meaning. First, below refers to an unofficial archive, a subaltern history of urban space. Second, below refers to the angle from which skateboarders and filmers gaze upon, capture, and consume the city-from the ground up. Since taking to the streets in the early 1980s, skateboarding has been captured on film, video tape and digital memory cards, edited into consumable forms and circulated around the world. Videos are objects amenable to ethnographic analysis while also archiving exercises in urban ethnography by their creators. I advocate for taking skate video seriously as a (fragile) archive of the urban backstage, collective memory across time and space, creative urban practice, urban encounters (people-to-people and people-to-object/s), and the globalization of a subculture at once delinquent and magnificent.

Distinguished Austrian sociologist Reinhold Knoll's letters to his grandchildren, written daily during the Covid-19 pandemic, evolved into an obituary of European culture, politics, and society. They also embody a gesture of thanks to the United States, which took a different path from Europe and then saved it in World War I and World War II. Like Beethoven's piano sonatas, some of Professor Knoll's letters are light and humorous while others plumb the depths of the human psyche. But each brings the past into the present, often enhanced by Viennese ironic wit, with recondite and penetrating observations on enlightenment and revolution, art and music, social thought, the devolution of the museum, the status of the church, migration, fashions in pedagogy, and the role of technology in society. This is the remarkable work of a balanced conscience in troubled times. America owes most of its cultural and spiritual traditions to the erstwhile European stewardship of a legacy that goes back to Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome - the subject, verb, and predicate of our human story, - though Europe now finds itself in a crisis of confidence with profound warnings for the American reader.

This book provides a critical approach to research on the social acceptance of renewable energy infrastructures and on energy transitions in general by questioning prevalent principles and proposing specific research pathways and lines of inquiry that look beyond depoliticised, business-as-usual discourses and research agendas on green growth and sustainability. It brings together authors from different socio-geographical and disciplinary backgrounds within the social sciences to reflect upon, discuss and advance what we propose to be five cornerstones of a critical approach: overcoming individualism and socio-cognitivism; repoliticisations - recognising and articulating power relations; for interdisciplinarity; interventions - praxis and political engagement with research; and overcoming localism and spatial determinism: As such, this book offers academics, students and practitioners alike a comprehensive perspective of what it means to be critical when inquiring into the social acceptance of renewable energy and associated infrastructures.