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Authenticity is an interactionist distinction that is symbolically created and negotiated in everyday life. This paper (1) investigates “underground” country musicians and their definitions of self, including the process of creating accounts and (2) demonstrates the importance of authenticity-based identity work as a symbolically constituted and socially negotiated process. The purpose here is not to celebrate “authentic” country music, but rather to examine how these artists construct and manage the perception of authentic identities and to also demonstrate how authenticity-based identity work serves as a meaningful addition to these artists’ identities.

Purpose: Following the theoretical literature on growth model with externalities, the chapter aims at finding empirical evidence of the main sources of economic interdependencies in Europe.

Methodology/approach: A two-step econometric procedure is adopted. In the first step, in order to evaluate growth spillovers in Europe, cointegration relationships between indexes of industrial production per capita are estimated for 15 European countries. The estimated coefficients, interpreted as long-run elasticities between European countries, appear to be different between countries and unstable over time. In the second step, these coefficients are explained by trade, specialization, research and development (R&D), and macroeconomic variables.

Findings: Panel estimations show strong evidence in favor of a positive relationship between openness, country size, knowledge accumulation, and the long-run sensitivity to European income. European income spillovers are not explained by the specialization of trade and production. We conclude that countries that benefit the most from economic integration are the largest and those that invest the most in R&D.

Originality/value of chapter: The two-step approach adopted in this chapter is original and allows for measuring the impact of various determinants of externalities at the same time.

American radical economists in the 1960s perceived China under Maoism as an important experiment in creating a new society, aspects of which they hoped could serve as a model for the developing world. But the knowledge of “actually existing Maoism” was very limited due to the mutual isolation between China and the US. This chapter analyses the First Friendship Delegation of American Radical Political Economists (FFDARPE) to the People’s Republic of China in 1972, consisting mainly of Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) members, which was the first visit of a group of American economists to China since 1949. Based on interviews with trip participants as well as archival and published material, this chapter studies what we can learn about the engagement with Maoism by American radical economists from their dialogues with Chinese hosts, from their on-the-ground observations, and their reflection upon return. We show how the visitors’ own ideas conflicted and intersected with their perception of the Maoist practice on gender relations, workers’ management, and life in the communes. We also shed light on the diverging conceptions of the role for economic expertise between URPE and late Maoism. As the first in-depth study on the FFDARPE, we provide rich empirical insights into an ice-breaking event in the larger process of normalization in the Sino-US relations, which ultimately led to the disillusionment of the Left with China.

This chapter will investigate the philosophical perspective and practical drivers of teacher development programmes delivered by a UK university to serving teachers in China. This chapter will highlight the evolution of the professional development programmes as they were delivered, considering cultural diversity and subsequent impact upon practice. The impact from the participant’s perspective is themed around ‘changing thinking in teaching and learning’. While a significant majority of teacher participants stated that the programmes had changed their thinking, there were several cultural barriers that ultimately constrained the impact of the professional development. The different learning environment in the UK and China led some participants to perceive that it was impossible to implement the strategies in their context. Insight of this nature can support institutions in adapting their international continued professional development programmes, both in content and mode of delivery, to address both teacher perceptions and changing global landscapes.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that, contrary to prevailing opinion in the social sciences, people are not driven by pure selfishness. Behavioral studies demonstrate that human beings have an inherent sense of fairness in the sharing of resources. What this should mean to leaders when distributing wealth will be discussed.

Approach – Anthropological and archaeological work indicates how this sense of fairness evolved and how the expectation of fair play provides a model of government that will work not only for the people but also for the leaders. It also demonstrates what happens when the model is not followed.

Findings – Recent events in the Middle East demonstrate how not following the model results in revolution and several examples are briefly discussed. The current situation in Russia is also discussed as another volatile hotspot. Finally, a worldview is taken arguing that corporate manipulation of governments has resulted in a global situation that does not take into account the underlying human sense of fair play, and, therefore, is setting up a worldwide situation for revolutions.

Value – Evolved human behavior has been overlooked by classical economics and social science theory. However, looking at the recent revolutions and current world economic situation from this behaviorist point of view provides a means of solving the situation.

The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan was a signatory to the Jomtien Education for All agreement. Pursuing EFA in Bhutan presents a number of unique geographical, systemic, linguistic and other challenges, and the Royal Government of Bhutan has adopted multigrade school development as one major strategy in moving towards EFA. This adoption can be considered a form of policy borrowing. In this chapter we explore how multigrade schooling has been enhanced and expanded in Bhutan to achieve EFA goals, and in particular, the conditions under which multigrade teaching has become an accepted and important form of educational delivery in Bhutan. We trace the development of multigrade teaching to a set of partly planned and partly coincidental events and contexts. We review the geographical setting of Bhutan, local and global political events, teacher training issues, teacher upgrade programmes, contemporary discourses of education, development and modernization, and local initiatives to promote and strengthen multigrade teaching as a key strategy in providing access to school for children in remote areas. We also identify a number of challenges facing multigrade teaching, including the linguistic context, local reservations about the desirability of multigrade classes and resource issues.