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The purpose of this paper is to provide forum for critical discourses in the area of retroduction thinking in the re-orientation of social sciences research at the Bank of Sierra Leone. It is acknowledged that economic research at the bank is more oriented towards the orthodox approach (Keynesian, etc.), while that of the un-orthodox (heterodox) view is being blighted by the need to prove economic theory application without much consideration given to the imperfect market economic conditions faced in the country.

The methodology of the paper is based on critical theoretical literature review of documents and also the assessment of current approach to research practices at the Bank of Sierra Leone.

There is actually a pool of professionals from different backgrounds, whose passion have been coordinated to embrace the idea of integrating variety of triangulation approaches (methodological, theoretical, data, and investigator) in their pursuit of exploring best practices for policy research at the bank. Research is an ontological journey and the process of its epistemological inquiry requires pool of experts, drawn from wide range of backgrounds (mainstream Social Sciences, Mathematical Science, etc.), whose approaches are pertinent in the pursuit of human discovery, and particularly for policy development, as in the case with the Bank of Sierra Leone. This work has highlighted several salient recommended points for future action in the lead towards energizing research at the bank.

The effort to provide this paper is very original, which is based on the author's experience of working in a research focused environment. This paper will be of value to future pursuance of work in promoting triangulation research at the Bank of Sierra Leone. It is hoped that the outcome of this will spearhead mixture of professional engagement of work activities that is geared towards addressing effective policy formulation at the bank in meeting its key objective (maintaining price stability).

Human rights has emerged in the past several years as an important issue of our times and the personal freedoms of citizens of many countries has become a concern of the American government. Since the Helsinki agreement in 1975 (the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe), the compliance of the Soviet government with the Helsinki accords—with respect to guarantees of individual freedoms of its citizens— has been watched anxiously by human rights groups all over the world.

While there is research that has explored how institutions have responded to various crises, these are usually locally or regionally situated. However, no event has impacted higher education globally like COVID-19 and it will certainly alter the way top administrators lead and how institutions move forward. Thus, this chapter will explore how to better understand how presidents and top administrators navigate the (inter)national geopolitics as they move the institution forward. In addition, clear and up-to-date communication has proven to be important in battling this crisis. Thus, how presidents at national universities have communicated with students, faculty, staff, and various off-campus communities members regarding COVID-19 and how they have achieved is important to explore. Our findings suggest that presidents and top administrators need to build support to help them navigate the political roadblocks they may encounter. Findings also suggest that communication is the main role they play as leaders on their campus. On/off-campus community members see the presidents as the face of the university and key communicator as relates to communicating what the institutions is doing and how they are addressing the crisis. This chapter helps in better understanding the roles presidents and top administrators play during a global crisis.

Recognizing the need to build global-minded citizens, higher education institutions are increasingly trying to find ways to leverage their international programs to develop students’ intercultural competence. The MA in global leadership at Royal Roads University, Canada, created an international partnership in Ecuador that serves to go beyond the traditional student study abroad or service learning focus and instead focuses on developing competencies of global mindedness and strategic relationships. In this chapter, we present an analysis of how an international student group engaged in building dynamic partnerships within a Global South country to create change for sustainable development initiatives of mutual concern. Through a case example, we describe how these partnerships evolved and adapted in ways that enhanced the learning needs of the students while simultaneously supporting the development of new educational opportunities for Ecuadorians. To illustrate, this chapter delineates the activities that members of the program undertook to connect and develop a mutuality of relationship across diverse stakeholders in Ecuador. The authors analyze this network-building process from the perspective of cultural context, building trust and influence, and responding to social development needs of host communities.

A GOOD deal of fuss has been occasioned by the barring of several novels by the Libraries Association recently. Into the pros and cons of the matter—which have been over‐canvassed already—we do not propose to enter in detail: these circulating libraries and their customers can be left to reconcile their own differences of opinion. It is, however, unfortunate that a few commercial circulating libraries, when combining to form an association, should have chosen a title that was bound to be confused with that of the Library Association.

Despite the existence of a variety of approaches to the understanding of behavioral and managerial ethics in organizations and business relationships generally, knowledge of organizing systems for fidelity remains in its infancy. We use halakha, or Jewish law, as a model, together with the literature in sociology, economic anthropology, and economics on what it termed “middleman minorities,” and on what we have termed the Landa Problem, the problem of identifying a trustworthy economic exchange partner, to explore this issue.

The article contrasts the differing explanations for trustworthy behavior in these literatures, focusing on the widely referenced work of Avner Greif on the Jewish Maghribi merchants of the eleventh century. We challenge Greif’s argument that cheating among the Magribi was managed chiefly via a rational, self-interested reputational sanctioning system in the closed group of traders. Greif largely ignores a more compelling if potentially complementary argument, which we believe also finds support among the documentary evidence of the Cairo Geniza as reported by Goitein: that the behavior of the Maghribi reflected their deep beliefs and commitment to Jewish law, halakha.

Applying insights from this analysis, we present an explicit theory of heroic marginality, the production of extreme precautionary behaviors to ensure service to the principal.

Generalizing from the case of halakha, the article proposes the construct of a deep code, identifying five defining characteristics of such a code, and suggests that deep codes may act as facilitators of compliance. We also offer speculation on design features employing deep codes that may increase the likelihood of production of behaviors consistent with terminal values of the community.