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Using visual materials to understand a social object requires the researcher to know that object's purpose, and this is true whether the object is an artifact, a restricted event, a small social world, or something as massive as the modern city. I argue that the purpose of the city as a settlement is driven by the need to safely sleep in peace at night while satisfying other basic biophysical needs during the day as conveniently as possible. An examination of these needs identifies 10 functional prerequisites for human settlement, entangling its inhabitants in involuntary community with entities and events other than themselves, whether they like it or not. In addition, the rise of the modern city exacerbates the challenge of living in a reluctant community and pressures its inhabitants to come to terms with the consequences for how these relationships affect daily life. I highlight nine challenges posed as questions that have been particularly salient in American urban history since the mid-nineteenth century. How these challenges have been addressed indicates not only what it takes to make a modern city a settlement suitable for satisfying human needs, but also just how deeply invested its residents are in making the city work. Finally, the 10 functional prerequisites and nine moral challenges not only provide a framework for researching the city, but also suggest a coherent outline for imagining a “shooting script” or guide for conducting visual research.

This is a modified version of the 2022 George Herbert Mead Lecture that I delivered at the Annual Meeting of the National Communications Association in New Orleans, LA. Drawing upon ethnographic research with Mississippi River pilots, I outline the strengths and weaknesses of Mead's conceptualization of “mind” as a means to develop the “great cooperative community” he envisioned. I argue that although we possess the cognitive capacity to take the attitude of a multitude of others, even during complex and evolving scenarios, there are also material incentives for some groups to impede the emergence of the mind via the construction of “closed-networks.” I identify one example of a closed-network – professional associations – to demonstrate how and why they attempt to prevent outsiders from role-taking with members of their group. Although the persistence of closed networks hampers Mead's vision of a more co-operative society, it is only by understanding the origins of such barriers to mind that we can address the root causes of their construction.

Trade of environmentally sensitive goods (ESGs) is often exposed to countries with less stringent regulations suggesting that those countries have comparative advantage in the polluting sector. The Group of Twenty (G20) members are among the highest polluters, globally. Different stringency policies are enacted time to time in G20 to control environment pollution. However, the impact of policy stringency on export performance of ESGs is seldom examined. The paper aims to address some of the issues concerning this matter.

The present study aims to address the short run and long-run association between Revealed Comparative Advantage of ESGs and Environmental Policy Stringency Index for the period of 1990–2019 in G20. Periodic fluctuations and time adjustment mechanism are also studied. Second Generation Panel Cointegration, Vector Error Correction, Impulse Response Function and Variance Decomposition methods are employed to address the objectives.

Result is evident that more exposure to stringent environmental regulations reduces the comparative advantage of ESGs in the long run. But there is no evidence of the short-run relationship between the variables. The possible reason could be that new regulations enacted prove fruitful in the long run.

The novelty of the study is to focus on inter linkages between stringency and global export competitiveness in G20, almost nonexistent in the past studies. The study also provides a road map to policymakers to find out potential ways for sustainable development by balancing environmental stringency measures and international trade.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2022-0560

Recent academic studies, as well as media reporting, have devoted substantial attention to the ongoing “crisis of democracy.” Democratic “backsliding” of Central and Eastern Europe – sometimes referred to as an effort to establish a new system of “illiberal democracy” – is one of the most visible symptoms of this crisis. This narrative is supported by the quantitative metrics of democratic quality, reflecting professional community views on the appropriate criteria to define and assess democracy. However, once general public views expressed in the survey item of “satisfaction with democracy” are taken into account, the picture changes markedly. This chapter analyzes quantitative metrics reflecting expert community consensus and the general public assessment of the quality of democracy in the 27 EU members over the period 2010–2019. It documents substantial divergence between the perspectives of the experts and the general public – while expert-based indexes portray Central and Eastern European backsliding as the most significant trend in the EU democratic landscape, public opinion identifies a very different set of democracy's successes and failures. As experts and the general public fail to arrive at mutually accepted criteria of democratic performance evaluation, public debate has become futile. Meaningful discussion and systemic corrections have become unlikely, creating conditions easily exploitable by the populists, eager to frame it as an example of “elite” detachment from the “ordinary people”.

The motivation for this study is to understand the stressful situations leading to great resignation and evaluate the cognitions of psychological attachment (PA) and organizational attractiveness (OA) to mitigate this crisis, using the attachment theory as the theoretical basis.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on individuals employed in Indian organizations (Nifty 50) to identify the most impactful cognitions underlying the dynamics between person–job fit (P-J fit) and the intention to stay (ITS).

This study highlighted that a serial mediation relationship between PA (specifically “internalization”) and OA is influenced by the P-J “needs–supplies” fit, particularly during extraordinarily stressful times. Managers must re-emphasize PA and OA as core organizational resources that must be prioritized, maintained and refined to reinforce employees' intent to stay in their organizations.

No research has studied P-J fit, PA, OA, underpinned by the attachment theory to reinforce the ITS given the context of the great resignation triggered by the pandemic's extraordinarily stressful situation.

This paper explores employee experiences of induction in the Big Four accountancy firms to understand how induction influences new recruits' career aspirations.

Using Bourdieusian sociology, this article adopts an interpretivist multi-method approach through focus groups and semi-structured interviews with 28 newly appointed accounting professionals. The study defines newly appointed as those who have experienced induction within the last two years of their employment.

The study's findings challenge the authenticity of induction from a shared employee consensus. It cites contagious spin, regarding career progression opportunities espoused during induction, at odds with the reality of work, ultimately contributing towards unfulfilled employee aspiration. As current strategies suggest that the intersection between employee aspiration and employer provision in the accountancy profession, is too broad, this study argues for more collaborative inductions. In addition, it proposes that accountancy firms should re-evaluate their current strategies and co-construct more authentic inductions that benefit all stakeholders to develop a stronger psychological contract that positively influences employee aspiration.

The paper posits action-learning as a solution to address employee aspiration in induction campaigns in the accountancy profession.

As aspiration is the genesis of motivation and engagement, this study’s findings suggest that the use of an action-learning ethos in induction activities may provide an opportunity to explore the complexities of employee socialisation and provide a voice to new recruits attempting to influence any tensions or disappointment that may arise, as unmet career aspirations emerge.

The paper posits action learning as a solution to address employee aspiration in induction campaigns in the accountancy profession.

At a time when the gradual collapse of democratic norms and processes is obvious to anyone who cares to read the headlines, the tension between self and society is fertile soil for understanding democratic decay. While we may wish to see democracy refortified, the fact remains that citizens equipped to handle democratic practices are a necessary precondition for democratic revitalization. Yet, the deterioration of democracy suggests breakdown in the gears of democratic production of the democratic citizen. The following chapter examines a particular cancer that is antithetical to democracy and has afflicted your author – the authoritarian personality. Critical theorists and social scientists in the mid-twentieth century identified this personality disposition as one that cultivates receptivity to fascism and is today the beating heart of right-wing extremism in its particular incarnation as Trumpism. I develop the theory of the authoritarian personality as it shaped and inflamed at the familial, societal, and global levels. Contributing to the project of planetary sociology, I demonstrate how the changes occurring on the world stage incite the most pernicious and antidemocratic features of the authoritarian personality. All the while, I subject myself to critical scrutiny in order to illustrate the inner-workings of this personality disposition. Your author stands before you as a recovering authoritarian and hopes that by reading this chapter, you will begin to see authoritarianism all around you, perhaps even within yourself.

The purpose of this paper is to add to the understanding of the human personality of fraudsters. This paper will explore their human personality by reviewing three characters from realist novels that have fraudsters as their leading characters. This pa[er will also contribute to literature that intersects between the humanities and criminology.

This paper reviews three fraudster characters from realist novels to explore their human personality, which includes qualitative phenomena resistant to positivist research.

Literature character review that adds to understanding of the qualitative nature of the personality of fraudsters. This qualitative nature of the human personality has been neglected in fraud research and the findings contribute to expanding understanding of the qualitative nature of fraud and fraudsters.

This paper is limited to a literature review from three characters from realist novels.

By expanding understanding of the human personality of fraudsters literary insights can contribute to fraud identification and prevention.

This paper reviews the human personality of three characters from novels to expand understanding of fraudsters, and thus contributes to the intersection of research between the humanities and criminology and fraud research.