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When complex social-ecological systems collapse and transform, the possible outcomes of this transformation are not set in stone. This paper aims to explore the role of social imagination in determining possible futures for a reformed system. The authors use a historical study of the Luddite response to the Industrial Revolution centred in the UK in the early-19th century to explore the concepts of path dependency, agency and the distributional impacts of systems change.

In this historical study, the authors used the Luddites’ own words and those of their supporters, captured in archival sources (n = 43 unique Luddite statements), to develop hypotheses around the effects on political, social and judicial consequences of a significant systems transformation. The authors then scaffolded these statements using the heuristics of panarchy and basins of attraction to conceptualize this contentious moment of British history.

Rather than a strict cautionary tale, the Luddites’ story illustrates the importance of environmental fit and selection pressures as the skilled workers sought to push the English system to a different basin of attraction. It warns us about the difficulty of a just transition in contentious economic and political conditions.

The Luddites’ story is a cautionary tale for those interested in a just transition, or bottom-up systems transformation generally as the deep basins of attraction that prefer either the status quo or alternate, elite-favouring arrangements can be challenging to shift independent of shocks. While backward looking, the authors intend these discussions to contribute to current debates on the role(s) of social innovation in social and economic policy within increasingly charged or polarized political contexts.

Social innovation itself is often predicated on the need for just transitions of complex adaptive systems (Westley et al., 2013), and the Luddite movement offers us the opportunity to study the distribution effects of a transformative systems change – the Industrial Revolution – and explore two fundamental questions that underpin much social innovation scholarship: how do we build a just future in the face of complexity and what are likely forms those conversations could take, based on historical examples?

The similarities between the developments of the United States (U.S.) and China into global powers (countries with global economic, military, and political influence) can be analyzed through big data analysis from both countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether or not China is on the same path to becoming a world power like what the U.S. did one hundred years ago.

The data of this study is drawn from political rhetoric and linguistic analysis by using “big data” technology to identify the most common words and political trends over time from speeches made by the U.S. and Chinese leaders from three periods, including 1905-1945 in U.S., 1977-2017 in U.S. and 1977-2017 in China.

Rhetoric relating to national identity was most common amongst Chinese and the U.S. leaders over time. The differences between the early-modern U.S. and the current U.S. showed the behavioral changes of countries as they become powerful. It is concluded that China is not a world power at this stage. Yet, it is currently on the path towards becoming one, and is already reflecting characteristics of present-day U.S., a current world power.

This paper presents a novel approach to analyze historical documents through big data text mining, a methodology scarcely used in historical studies. It highlights how China as of now is most likely in a transitionary stage of becoming a world power.

The purpose of this research aims at extending the knowledge on whether and how universities include sustainability dimensions in managing their collections. Precisely, the study focusses on the creation of a university museum (UM), as an embryonic stage of life during which management concerns both strategic and operational issues.

Sustainability is envisioned as a multifaceted concept, composed of the economic, cultural, environmental and social dimensions. Resorting to an acknowledged theoretical model for sustainable development in museum management, a qualitative interpretative study is carried out, gathering data from multiple sources. The empirical setting is the University of Pavia, which has recently created a new Museum of Natural History (Kosmos).

Results highlight how sustainability dimensions intertwin in UM creation. Moreover, the economic dimension emerges as a basement for the others. Value for the community, expressed in economic terms, must be ensured in UMs creation as well as throughout its entire life, in order to support cultural, environmental and social sustainability.

Focussing on the embryonic stage of UMs life allowed to consider how sustainability is embedded in relevant strategic and operational decisions. Nevertheless, scholars are encouraged to replicate the study in other stages of UMs' life, in a way to provide insights on its dynamics.

University collections managers can benefit from this research by acknowledging the role played by the economic dimension of sustainability. Notwithstanding their mission, universities should pay attention to extracting economic value from the management of their collections, as a means to ensure innovative and sustainable management on the cultural, environmental and social respects. Furthermore, this research suggests how a higher education system is able to create a new museum by relying on interdisciplinary competencies, which support sustainability since the embryonic stage.

This research contributes to the cultural heritage management literature by proposing an updated version of the sustainable development model for museums, which highlights the different relevance of the sustainability dimensions with particular regard to the UM creation and management.

The purpose of this paper is to draw a map of the general features of epistemological and critical concerns in contemporary Islamic philosophy. This study will not be confined to the domain of academic philosophy or to those who are professionals in the field of philosophy.

The paper adopted the critical rational approach in dealing with contemporary Islamic philosophy in the Arab world. The scope will include scholars from different fields of epistemology who tried to present a “vision” of the attitude that should be adopted in facing the challenges of the age and the problems of the nation on the epistemological level or the political, economic and social levels.

There is a need for a philosophy of action and progress rather than a philosophy that is based on abstract ideas and theories and of words/rhetoric. The ethics required to accomplish this ought to identify the attributes of the citizen who can reach self-actualization through legitimate means based on a progress agenda with theoretical and philosophical foundations.

Because a critical rational approach can be dealt with from different perspectives, this paper will adopt the classification of the principal intellectual trends: the reformist, secular and liberal.

This paper covers a long time span to determine whether the philosophical projects have been effective.

This paper, which criticizes the philosophic projects that are theoretically unsound and that do not address real social problems (like poverty), argues the need for a philosophy of progress and action. This will lead to devising an agenda that addresses the challenges the society is facing and to finding alternative and creative solutions resulting in development.

Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by robotic process automation and machine-to-machine communications. Since computers, machines, and robots share information and knowledge more swiftly and effectively than humans, the question is what human beings' role could be in the era of the Internet-of-Thing. The answer would be beneficial to institutions for higher education to anticipate. The literature reveals a gap between the intended learning outcomes in higher education institutions and the needs of employers in Industry 4.0. Evidence is shown that higher education mainly focused on knowledge (know-what) and theory-based (know-why) intended learning outcomes. However, competent professionals require knowledge (know-what), understanding of the theory (know-why), professional (know-how) and interpersonal skills (know-how and know-who), and need intrapersonal traits such as creativeness, persistence, a result-driven attitude et cetera. Therefore, intended learning outcomes in higher education should also develop interpersonal skills and intrapersonal characteristics. Yet, personality development is a personal effort vital for contemporary challenges. The history of the preceding industrial revolutions showed the drawbacks of personality and character education; politicians have abused it to control societies in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the discussion section, the institutions for higher education are alerted that the societal challenges of the twenty-first century could lead to a form of personality education that is not in the student's interest and would violate Isaiah Berlin's philosophical concept of ‘positive freedom’.

This paper focuses on governance in higher education in China. It sees that governance as distinctive on the world scale and the potential source of distinctiveness in other domains of higher education. By taking an historical approach, reviewing relevant literature and drawing on empirical research on governance at one leading research university, the paper discusses system organisation, government–university relations and the role of the Communist Party (CCP), centralisation and devolution, institutional leadership, interior governance, academic freedom and responsibility, and the relevance of collegial norms. It concludes that the party-state and Chinese higher education will need to find a Way in governance that leads into a fuller space for plural knowledges, ideas and approaches. This would advance both indigenous and global knowledge, so helping global society to also find its Way.

The paper aims to look into the implications of urban informality in Chris Abani's Graceland as represented in slum life and urban poverty as products of over urbanization and globalization, seeking to unravel multi-layers of the human side of the slum.

The paper examines slum life from a descriptive approach to highlight how people survive under poverty. The study of the culture of slums entails an analysis of the survival techniques and everyday practices of slum dwellers, the relations and patterns of behavior and the outcomes of the interplay between place, culture and power relations in such communities.

The urban slum dwellers utilize everyday forms of resistance which comprise a number of “low-profile techniques” to subvert state-imposed power structures and break the cycle of poverty.

Despite the relevance of a post-colonial approach to the texts, this paper is limited to the study of the impact of urban poverty on individuals.

The margin, represented in the urban poor, is brought into focus and perceived in a new light of empowerment which challenges alienating discourses.

The multidimensional vision of Nigeria in Abani's text highlights the cultural and economic impacts of multiculturalism, neocolonialism and globalization on the urban poor.

The paper formulates a framework for understanding the culture of the slum as a space of a peculiar nature, seeking to deconstruct a fixed view of slum life and poverty culture.

Patronage of local footwear have not been encouraging in Nigeria despite recent investments. The purpose of the study is to evaluate celebrity endorsement and customer patronage of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) products in African context, with focus on trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, respect and similarity (TEARS) model.

The research was designed as a descriptive survey. An online structured questionnaire was applied for data collection. Cronbach Alpha and content validity were used for reliability and validity, respectively. TEARS model was used to ascertain key dimensions, and Pearson correlation coefficient and logistic regression were applied into the analysis.

The findings reveal that celebrity endorsement is not associated with patronage of local footwears, though TEARS model analysis indicates the direction of consumers rating on celebrity endorsement. Factors such as recommendation and quality impact the consumer willingness to buy local footwear.

The small sample size calls for caution in generalization.

The study suggests that although the TEARs model is viable, all the dimensions are mutually exclusive. However, this depends on the characteristics of the brand. In driving patronage, managers must pay attention to personal and non-personal cues such as price, quality and source of information about their brand.

The originality is buttressed from the value it provides for local product production and patronage. The significant factors are indicated as key to addressing low patronage.

This paper aims at exploring the historical roots of ideals-based accountability (IBA) in a family business of the past. It examines the narrative accounts of the history of an Italian long-lived family business written by one of its latest business owners to determine how and to what extent it was used to discharge a more ethical form of accountability.

An extensive thematic analysis informed on the conceptual framework of IBA is conducted on the unpublished manuscript by Angelo Barovier, the oldest leader of the Barovier’s family business.

The retrospective narrative served the family owner as a means for IBA, unveiling to the present and future generations of family owners the values and ideals that had motivated the ancestors to sustain the family business throughout the centuries despite the financial performance or the adversities.

This paper reveals the historical roots of IBA as grounded in family business historical narratives. It contributes to management and family business history by showing the historical relevance of ideals and values for the development and sustainment of a family business.

This study opens to a larger application of IBA also in contemporary businesses, as a tool to foster and disseminate a more ethical form of accountability and to a further extent support the construction of a more ethical society.

This paper connects the newly developed IBA framework, conceived for family businesses, to a management history perspective showing its potential for the intergenerational transmission of business culture.

The objective of this research is to propose a framework which is apt to assess how a nation branding campaign could promote cultural identity by ultimately curbing political polarization.

By relying on a multidisciplinary approach that blends theoretical constructs from different fields the methodology is based on a mixed-method approach whereby the qualitative data stemming from a set of interviews with key-informants is coupled by a survey of Colombian citizens in order to gain in-depth insights over the impact of nation branding on political polarization.

From the findings, it emerges that a campaign based on nation branding and targeting domestic citizens could curb political polarization within Colombia, by also fostering cultural identity.

The study considers only Colombia. To fully assess the robustness of the framework it would be useful to extend the analysis to a broader range of countries and to a wider set of domestic issues.

The research not only provides in-depth insights on how nation branding can be used effectively in order to curb political polarization but also practical guidance on how a nation branding campaign can be effectively designed. The findings are relevant to policy-makers that have the opportunity to implement informed and educated nation branding campaigns not just overseas, but also to strategically address important domestic issues by engaging the domestic stakeholders.

While country branding has been extensively investigated within the context of international business, we have a relatively limited understanding of its domestic impact. In contrast to traditional country branding literature, this paper aims to theoretically advance our understanding of nation branding and its effect on political polarization, as well as gauging its impact on cultural identity.