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Social innovation (SI) acknowledges socio-economic challenges as opportunities to make communities more sustainable and cohesive through inclusive grassroots practices. The question remains, however, as to whether and how socially innovative practices can be effectively supported in developing inclusive economies. Drawing on the findings from two South African in-depth case studies, This paper aims to discuss how social innovation ventures may be supported to drive inclusiveness.

This paper purposively sampled two social enterprises (SEs) and conducted in-depth case studies through interviews and secondary data review.

The SEs selected promoted digital, economic and social inclusion. Despite the diversity of the two organisations, they shared similar challenges in undertaking their practices mostly deriving from South Africa’s lack of legal recognition and policy framework for social purpose-driven businesses.

Applying Moulaert et al.’s (2007) SI classification criteria to the case studies in focus, this paper seeks to extend our understanding of the challenges that innovative SE organisations face in tackling exclusion and contributing to build inclusive economies in the South African context.

In 2020, the coronavirus crisis ruptured societies and their everyday life around the globe. This chapter is a contribution to critically theorising the changes societies have undergone in the light of the coronavirus crisis. It asks: How have everyday life and everyday communication changed in the coronavirus crisis? How does capitalism shape everyday life and everyday communication during this crisis?

This chapter focuses on how social space, everyday life and everyday communication have changed in the coronavirus crisis.

The coronavirus crisis is an existential crisis of humanity and society. It radically confronts humans with death and the fear of death. This collective experience can on the one hand result in new forms of solidarity and socialism or can on the other hand, if ideology and the far-right prevail, advance war and fascism. Political action and political economy are decisive factors in such a profound crisis that shatters society and everyday life.

In the current period quality assurance (QA) and technical vocational education and training (TVET) are known as the two comprehensively examined ideas in schooling, dependent on exceptional abilities in this modern era of Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0. The incapability or need for QA of technology-oriented programs has been dissected by policy makers as a hindrance in accomplishing the TVET objectives. Consequently, the reason for this exploration paper was to contemplate over the impact and association of QA on TVET programs and level of preparedness of TVET teachers for the market of IR 4.0 in Pakistan.

In this study a quantitative research method with survey-based research has been used whereas, two research questions and hypotheses were structured and explained to lead the study. The research sample was 475 TVET teachers having technical competence for Pakistan using the random sampling technique. The instrument was an adapted questionnaire using five Likert scales. Moreover, mean and standard deviation was utilized while one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation was used to test the hypothesis.

The findings of this study uncovered that there is no significant impact of QA of TVET programs to fulfill the need of IR 4.0 in Pakistan. But there is strong and positive association between QA of TVET programs as per the demand of IR 4.0 and level of preparedness of teachers toward it. The study suggested that in order to meet the labor market's requirements according to IR 4.0, future employment demand could be met by assuring their TVET programmers' QA and putting them into practice in accordance with the indicators and the TVET framework suggested in literature and by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is widely accepted. The findings will also help to detect current trends in teaching, providing important insights in terms of QA and the focus of digitalization in TVET education.

The implication of this study is that in order to influence TVET's technological development, employment and national development, policy makers, TVET principals, coordinators and teachers must work on important aspects of their access that are very important on inclusion, financing and quality – the assurance of standards, as it meets the needs of the country according to the IR 4.0 labor market.

This is one of the unique studies of its nature which has focused on the QA on TVET programs for the digital employment market of IR 4.0 in Pakistan and South Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how second-order cybernetics (von Foerster, 2002) functions in new media artworks, specifically through information, system and user. While formulating the relationship between new media artworks and the discourses surrounding cybernetics the paper analyzes Popp’s (2006) Bit.Fall, Wojtowicz’s (2007) Elsewhere News and Zeren Göktan’s (2013) The Counter, as exemplars of alternative methods of narration. This study further argues that these new media artworks employ a cybernetic narrative via modes of “circularity,” “feedback,” and “perception.”

This paper offers a theoretical approach to new media art and cybernetics in order to analyze three select works. Since the works mentioned have diverse takes on the presented concepts each is discussed and analyzed in their frame of production in relation to cybernetics and new media standpoints.

It is significant that these three artists attempt to invert the quotidian into the concept of new media while cybernetics facilitates their interactive art installations. The fully functioning circularity in these works breaks down the linear narrative structure while regenerating a non-linear narrative together with the flow of information, utilization of the systems and the user interaction. In these works narrative functions as a tool for interaction, which is cybernetically generated by the user (human) and the systems (machine).

New media artworks at least suggest a possibility of observing contemporary art and its history in the making if not generating it altogether through cybernetic modes of “circularity,” “feedback” and “perception.” The experience of these artworks for each user differs depending on their choice to either reject or become immersed in the work. The possible sensoria, however, may still be betrayed by the mind’s willingness to cooperate or at times by the ability to perceive.

Domestic abuse or intimate partner violence is a term that describes a pattern of abusive behaviours, often experienced concurrently and linked to gender-based violence. This study aims to explore through the literature the potential to design effective digital services that work for victims, survivors and those who provide domestic abuse support services.

This study is based on a systems or service design thinking methodology which was adopted during a Scottish Government-funded Technology Enabled Care (TEC) pathfinder project on domestic abuse. This methodology is the basis for the Scottish Approach to Service Design which is based on the Design Council Double Diamond. During the first phase, known as the discovery phase, desk-based research is conducted by the service design team to inform their approach to the later phases (the second half of the first diamond is define whilst design and deliver form the second diamond). Time is spent during discovery to unpack the complexity whilst the approach takes a pragmatic worldview.

Technology has yet to be shown to provide an effective solution to any aspect of the victim or survivors’ experience or support services albeit these are often over-stretched and under-funded even without the Covid-19 pandemic. Digital abuse is increasing with perpetrators adapting new technologies. Digital developments should be grounded on ethical design principles.

This study is the result of the desk-based research during a TEC project considering the potential role of technology in tackling domestic abuse. Limitations include only including evidence from the literature; interviews were conducted but are not reported here. Another limitation is the pragmatic rather than academic nature of the approach; it was to be a foundation for service re-design. So hopefully useful for new practitioners to immerse themselves in the topic area but with no claims to be reproducible as would be the case in a formal review.

All the evidence shows the authors need to keep trying different approaches, different forms of engagement and ways to empower survivors. Could technology support health-care practitioners to consistently use sensitive routine enquiry? Perhaps enable independent domestic violence advisors to attend more multidisciplinary team meetings in local community settings? Meanwhile, digital abuse is increasing with perpetrators adapting new technologies. Technology has not yet provided a digital solution which is practical and meets the needs of the broad intersectional population affected by domestic abuse nor those who provide support. If the future is to be based on digital developments it must be grounded on ethical design principles.

This desk-based review collates the current national and international policy and research literature whilst focusing on digital developments which support those affected by domestic abuse.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Grameen America's response to COVID-19 pandemic. This is accomplished by identifying and analyzing the key initiatives implemented by Grameen America within the framework of selected United Nations' Sustainability Development Goals (UN’s SD Goals).

This study has used qualitative content analysis to analyze financial and nonfinancial information of Grameen Bank.

This study follows a qualitative content analysis method to precisely gauge the shift in Grameen’s strategy and focus, as well as to assess the impact of its initiatives on the small business community before and after the pandemic. The findings showcase that Grameen’s longstanding mission to alleviate poverty is in line with the UN’s SD Goal 1. Also, Grameen’s commitment to create partnerships with external organizations to offer credit and noncredit services and support is consistent with UN’s SD Goal 17.

Notwithstanding the significant contributions of this case study, the findings are limited in some respects. First, this case study focuses on the Grameen America’s unique experience regarding its response to COVID-19 pandemic. This may affect the interpretation and generalization of the findings of this study. Performing comparative views across wide range of relevant microlending institutions could help improve the generalization of the findings. Also, this case study examines the impact on women and minority groups who were particularly affected by the pandemic. The results should, therefore, be interpreted with care as circumstances may change over time.

The implication for practice is that policymakers should encourage the creation of more member-based financial and non-financial institutions that can help members integrate financially and socially into society. Also, practitioners should increase their ethical duties and responsibilities to their members in society in good and bad times as members tend to value the ethical aspect of financial businesses.

The social implication of the findings is that helping members of society to cope with the difficulties brought about by COVID increased the sense of belonging among members and made them feel cared for, thereby increasing financial and social inclusion among underserved people.

Prior literature addressed the initiatives of microlending institutions such as Grameen Bank to achieve financial inclusion among financially vulnerable women. This case study contributes to the literature on financial inclusion and poverty alleviation by examining Grameen America’s response to the pandemic by identifying and assessing Grameen America (GA’s) key initiatives and their impact within the framework of the UN’s SD Goals in the post COVID-19 world.

Gillette’s historically successful “razor and blade” business model (RBM) has been a promising benchmark for multiple businesses across diverse industries worldwide in the past several decades. The extant literature deals with very few nuances of this business model notwithstanding the fact that there are several variants of this business model being put to practical use by firms in diverse industries in grossly metaphorically equivalent situations.

This study adopts the 2 × 2 truth table framework from the domains of mathematical logic and combinatorics in fleshing out all possible (four logical possibilities) variants of the razor and blade business model for further analysis. This application presents four mutually exclusive yet collectively exhaustive possibilities on any chosen dimension. Two major dimensions (viz., provision of subsidy and intra- or extra-firm involvement in the making of razors or blades or both) form part of the discussion in this paper. In addition, this study synthesizes and streamlines entrepreneurial wisdom from multiple intra-industry and inter-industry benchmarks in terms of real-time firms explicitly or implicitly adopting several variants of the RBM that suit their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of evolution in situations that are grossly reflective of the metaphorically equivalent scenario of razor and recurrent blades. Inductive method of research is carried out with real-time cases from diverse industries with a pivotally common pattern of razor and blade model in some form or the other.

Several new variants of the razor and blade model (much beyond what the extant literature explicitly projects) have been discovered from the multiple metaphorically equivalent cases of RBM across industries. All of these expand the portfolio of options that relevant entrepreneurial firms can explore and exploit the best possible option chosen from them, given their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of growth.

This study has enriched the literature by presenting and analyzing a more inclusive or perhaps comprehensive palette of explicit choices in the form of several variants of the RBM for the relevant entrepreneurial firms to choose from. Future research can undertake the task of comparing these variants of RBM with those of upcoming servitization business models such as guaranteed availability, subscription and performance-based contracting and exploring the prospects of diverse combinations.

Smart entrepreneurial firms identify and adopt inspiring benchmarks (like razor and blade model whenever appropriate) duly tweaked and blended into a gestalt benchmark for optimal profits and attractive market shares. They target diverse market segments for tied-goods with different variants or combinations of the relevant benchmarks in the form of variegated customer value propositions (CVPs) that have unique and enticing appeal to the respective market segments.

Value-sensitive customers on the rise globally choose the option that best suits them from among multiple alternatives offered by competing firms in the market. As long as the ratio of utility to price of such an offer is among the highest, even a no-frills CVP may be most appealing to one market segment while a plush CVP may be tempting to yet another market segment simultaneously. While professional business firms embrace resource leverage practices consciously, amateur customers do so subconsciously. Each party subliminally desires to have the maximum bang-to-buck ratio as the optimal return on investment, given their priorities ceteris paribus.

Prior studies on the RBM have explicitly captured only a few variants of the razor and blade model. This study is perhaps the first of its kind that ferrets out many other variants (more than ten) of the razor and blade model with due simplification and exemplification, justification and demystification.

A study conducted by UN Habitat (2020) revealed that financing of investment in African growing cities has become an impediment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Close to USD 93 billion is needed to finance urban development in Africa. The prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic impacted negatively on the independence of African cities to raise revenue or incur long-term debt to finance their development. Several local governments in African cities are not positioned enough to ensure quality standards of living for their people. This is because many local authorities in African cities cannot intervene in various emergencies or crises which pose a danger to people given the COVID-19 pandemic era where strategic government interventions are essential to save the lives of the people. Burdened by the need to respond to COVID-19, many African governments have diverted their attention from the smart city ideology which demands stable financial revenues and redirected their efforts towards mitigating the scourge of the pandemic. Drawing from this background, therefore this chapter reports on the three selected African cities (Johannesburg, Lagos and Accra) because of their experiences regarding COVID-19, and their responses to the pandemic towards achieving a smart city in Africa. The chapter is guided by the following specific objectives: To examine the unintended consequences of COVID-19 on the achievement of Smart Cities in three African Cities; to assess the opportunities and challenges of achieving smart cities amid COVID 19 in three African Cities; and to determine how rapid urbanisation affects the achievement of Smart Cities amid COVID-19 in three African Cities. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyse data acquired from secondary sources.

The Minimum Income Standard (MIS) research gives an insight into living standards in the United Kingdom, and provides a way of tracking the adequacy of incomes over time. As such it offers useful context for discussions of inequality. At the core of the research are deliberative groups held with members of the public who identify and discuss the goods and services that are considered necessary for a living standard that provides a socially acceptable minimum. Groups decide not only what is enough to maintain health and well-being, but also what is needed for social inclusion. This chapter begins with an outline of MIS before exploring what the qualitative data from the research tell us about how people conceptualise socially acceptable living standards. These data also reveal how particular items, opportunities and choices are considered important in enabling individuals to feel socially included and how that has changed over time. The chapter then looks at how this living standard relates to UK household incomes and at the adequacy of income relative to MIS, in the years following the recession. We identify the groups at greatest risk of having inadequate incomes and explore how this risk has changed during a period in which there has been a sustained decline in living standards. In combining qualitative and quantitative findings from a decade of research, this chapter provides rich insight into living standards and their relation to income within the United Kingdom.