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Research on underbanked and unbanked populations has tended to focus on rural borrowers. Lenders to this disadvantaged population are often seen as loan sharks preying on the disadvantaged or as corporate capitalists using micro loans to financialize the developing world. Building on the concept that money has social meaning and that it both creates and maintains significant local relationships, we explore the lending practices of a small gray-market financier in urban Bangkok. While most anthropology research is borrower-focused, we detail the processes and cultural understandings of making loans, collections, trust, and personal relationships of a lender in a Bangkok neighborhood. From her perspective, lending is perceived as a community service that no other institution provides to the under/unbanked in her neighborhood. Marking a divergence from prior development research, which emphasizes the high interest rates of informal lenders, the difficulties faced by borrowers in rural areas, the gendered relationships and hierarchies developed and sustained via lending, this article highlights the lending-side practices of informal loans and the limited ability to move from the liminal space of the gray-market lending business.

This chapter proposes a sustainable trajectory for leadership and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) organizational change in higher education. Leadership practices and strategies necessary to construct and implement change and cultivate diverse, equitable, and inclusive educational environments are deliberated, with particular emphasis on transformational leadership theories and practices. These types of organization development practices produce concrete transformation in institutions that have long-established, inert, and deeply entrenched cultures in which discriminatory or even racist practices have been deeply embedded and accepted over time. The complex dynamics of transformation in higher education, brought on, in part, by the rigidity of its organizational structure coupled with its history and foundation in racism and racist practices, makes achieving sustainable change difficult in higher education. Transformational change requires the creation of new mental models through meaning making and perspective sharing that allow individuals in higher education to think differently about how higher education institutions should operate given the rapid shifts in our society. Organizational change leaders must engage in deep, purposeful, and critical reflection and examination of the organization's culture to lay the groundwork for significant change. The chapter explores topics such as leading change through transformational leadership and the styles, practices, and capabilities associated with it, leadership development, strategic diversity leadership, and the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) as change leader in higher education. The internal and external environmental trends demanding substantive change in higher education continue to intensify over time. The demand for pervasive transformation in higher education is resounding, and institutional leaders must be open to and even drive new and innovative approaches to shifting its very core – its DNA, its culture – to meet those demands.

This chapter deals with family/household relevance as a stakeholder institution in rural (farm) communities. The data collection approach is qualitative. Families in Japan and the Philippines’ rice-cultivating communities were the subjects of the study. Results revealed that households in the two sites were experiencing a unique ontological crisis vis-á-vis farming communities. The crisis pointed to the problem of farm families’ relegation as secondary stakeholders in the farming sector. Despite the struggle for survival in the farm sector, farm families were differently adaptive and enduring in dealing with the modern development – that is, selective technology adoption, farmland redefinition, struggle and resistance against farm policies, and community group accommodation, to name a few. This endurance contributes to farm family persistence as a relevant institution in Japan and the Philippines.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a disaster that triggered serious economic downturn, social unrest, and many human security threats in all countries across the world, including Indonesia. The Indonesian government has imposed many regulations, from soft to hard measures. However, the number of COVID-19 victims and death rate is high. Moreover, many people do not comply with government regulations. Therefore, the government collaborates with religious institutions, including Islamic institutions, to convince people about the danger of COVID-19 and the necessity of complying with government regulations. Using the lens of human security, this chapter aims to examine the role of Islamic institutions in handling the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. It is found that the roles of Islamic institutions are essential to protect and empower the people. Its roles can be categorised as (1) socialisation and education, (2) donation, (3) regulations, and (4) community assistance. Learning from Indonesia’s experience, we conclude that promoting human security, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, needs a comprehensive collaboration between the government, civil societies, and the people.

The concept of governance recognises the power dependency that exists between institutions that are engaged in collective action. Government, according to UNESCAP, is a process through which choices are made and executed or rejected. Corporate governance, international governance, national governance and municipal governance are just a few examples of how the term governance may be employed. Governance was also cited by UNESCAP as a player in government. To build a smart city and economy, national level of governance focuses on freedom of media, country history and traditions, civil society, private sector and good government. All those elements are important to build a smart economy and smart city. This chapter discusses the role of government to ensure good governance and good citizen policy choices that benefit the smart city and economy in Bangladesh.

This chapter provides an overview of the inclusive education policies in Ghana and how these policies were developed toward fulfilling the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Number 4. We start the chapter by introducing Ghana's demographics and awareness in disability, as well as the historical background in inclusive education. Next, we address the current state of Ghana's inclusive education by sharing the current policies and infrastructure that transforms special education schools into resource centers, promotes a learner-friendly environment, and serves as the legal foundation for private and public schools to implement inclusive education for all children. We further discuss the challenges imposed by the recent wave of the COVID pandemic on inclusive education, and the initiatives Ghana leadership enacted to provide a continuum of inclusive services for all children. We then conclude the chapter with implications and recommendations to stakeholders.

In the present discourse of university politics, collegiality has come to be viewed as a slow force – seemingly inefficient and conservative compared to popular management models. Concerns have thus been raised regarding the future prospects of such a form of governance in a society marked by haste and acceleration. One way to bring perspectives on this contentious issue is to perceive it in the light of the long history of the university. In this article, I derive insights about the shifting state of collegial governance through a survey of an intense period of reforms in Sweden c. 1850–1920 when higher education was allegedly engaged in a process of modernization and professionalization. Drawing on recent work in historical theory and science and technology studies (STS), I revisit contests and debates on collegiality in connection to a number of governmental commissions. Focusing on the co-existence – and collisions – of multiple temporalities reveals that overcoming potential problems associated with heterogeneous rhythms required an active work of synchronization by universities in order to make them appear timely, as higher education expanded along with the mounting ambitions of national politics, focused on centralization, efficiency, and rationalization. The analysis is structured around three focal issues for which collegial ideals and practices, including their temporal characteristics, were particularly questioned: (a) the composition of the university board, (b) the employment status of professors, and (c) hiring or promotion practices. Pointing at more structural challenges, this study highlights how collegiality requires a constant maintenance paired with an awareness of its longer and complex history.

Africa seeks to be a competitive global player through its comprehensive development agenda committed to by all countries on the continent for the ‘Africa we want’ in terms of the African Union Agenda 2063 as well as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Quality education that is also inclusive is therefore a vital and necessary tool to drive this development agenda. One of the greatest assets of the African continent is its teeming youth population whose education is the catalyst for Africa’s development. Yet, access and the quality of education in many countries on the continent remain very low when compared to other parts of the world. There have been significant strides made in ensuring inclusive and quality education, however, nearly one in three children does not complete primary education for a variety of reasons including costs of learning, accessibility and inclusivity that underscores the quality of received education. In the main, two main issues have been consistent in recreating the educational crisis on the continent; access and quality of education resulting in a vicious cycle of high youth unemployment rate. The high rate of unemployment threatens Africa’s capability to achieve its developmental objectives. South Africa is one of the countries with the right to education, yet the country has huge unemployment rate. Thus, with South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria struggling with endemic developmental challenges, meeting the targets of creating the ‘Africa we want’ and fostering a sustainable development agenda hang in the balance. There is an urgent need to address quality education as a central objective to realise a sustainable development agenda for the continent.

In this book chapter, I focus on the epistemological, ontological and axiological practice traditions that help to reveal the taken-for-granted assumptions about the management of trust funds in First Nation communities. Informing this chapter is a qualitative research study involving 11 First Nation community members in Canada who were interviewed. Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing and the theory of practice architectures are used to identify the cultural discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements that enable and/or constrain practice. The findings reveal that Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing collide adversely with trust account decision making due to the duties and obligations guiding trust settlement agreements. The ways in which trust account practices can be transformed to ensure greater alignment with Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing are outlined.