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This chapter aims to explore the novelty and utility of political economy discourse, termed “neo-statism,” as an analytical lens for comparative research in higher education. Analysis is framed within the context of Hong Kong’s transition from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region under China’s sovereignty, and its shifting academic paradigms from a more or less spontaneous philosophy rooted in liberal capitalist economy to embracing neo-statism, which involves market-conforming and state-sponsored approaches to economic and social restructuring whereby the state regulates higher education in support of national integration and global power projection. The statist regulation depends heavily on its deployment of discursive legitimacy, strategic distribution of resources, organizational synergy, and elite cohesion articulated through higher education policy, research projects, and cross-border academic exchange and cooperation. The Hong Kong case suggests that comparative research in higher education should advance from the methodological aspects of the comparative approach to exploring wider theoretical spectrum, for understanding emerging politico-economic factors shaping academic paradigm in comparative contexts. Moreover, scholars who engage in the trendy internationalization in higher education should move beyond the logics of neo-liberalism, and pay closer attention to the new geopolitical realities that are changing the normative and interactive dimensions of international higher education at large.

The Latin American region experienced an electoral shift to the political left during the 2000s but this leftist shift did not radically alter the political economy of the region. Following Jessop’s (2008) strategic-relational approach to theorizing about the state, this paper focuses on the perspective that the structure of the state is both an outcome of prior social struggles and a structuring mechanism for the social actors that attempt to enact political and economic reforms.

After demonstrating what this has historically meant for the types of state that have existed in Latin America during the past century by reviewing some of the literature on the corporatist and bureaucratic-authoritarian states and clientelism, this paper argues that the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s and 1990s constituted a new type of state – the Latin American neoliberal state. This analysis is then focused on the literature that seeks to describe the new lefts in the region, while continuing to focus on the role of the neoliberal state in structuring these new lefts’ terrain of struggle.

Understanding the new lefts in Latin America and the types of reforms that they are capable of making requires that we better understand this new type of state. Due to the structural limitations imposed by the neoliberal state, the lefts are not able to radically alter the region’s political economy.

The main theme of this special volume is the colonial state and its governmental practices. This chapter introduces and contextualizes the contributions by providing a brief induction to recent developments within the study of the colonial state. It then presents the contributions under three perspectives which represent separate yet interrelated themes relevant for the understanding of the colonial state: practices, violence, and agency. Hereby, we also accentuate the value of a non-state-centric approach to the analysis of the colonial state.

This study aims to outline an axiology of inclusivity, which can facilitate self-reflection on the possible impact of acting and pursuing a more inclusive branding and marketing for places.

By deconstructing the main assumption, which constitutes the new inclusive paradigm in the marketing and branding of places as more participatory, responsible and democratic, this article tackles critical and pragmatist concerns about the political dimension and its implications for branding and marketing theories and practices in the realm of places.

The article argues that, to be understood and enacted as inclusive, branding and marketing should be seen and act as (bio)political arts of government, characterized by the impolitical as an alternative form of political praxis, whose axiological foundation is based on a particular form of civism, which offers a different mode and stance of approaching political effects and impacts for all stakeholders involved.

Little has been written about the political value, substance and appearance that indicate inclusivity as a fundamental notion for participation, engagement and democracy. This article contributes to the existing literature, arguing that inclusivity should be demystified, as it may present a self-fulfilling discourse that might create political problems.

Focused on the intersection between entrepreneurial resilience and different forms of collaboration, this research makes a systematic analysis of the literature resorting to various complementary bibliometric techniques (keyword co-occurrence; bibliographic coupling of documents; bibliographic coupling of authors; co-citation of references).

According to the research protocol defined, a search by topics was made in Web of Science (WoS), with no time restriction, which led to including 97 articles in the sample. Descriptive analysis identified the evolution and tendency of publications and citations, the most productive journals, universities and countries in this topic and the research methodologies followed in the articles of the sample.

The different bibliometric techniques applied led to understanding and systematization of the tendencies and themes concerning the topic, allowing the development of a conceptual framework articulating them and revealing possible lines of research that could contribute to developing the literature.

By showing different facets of the intersection between entrepreneurial resilience and collaboration, this paper highlights the multiple implications of this area at different levels of analysis (individuals, ventures and communities) with the importance of networks of collaboration patent in each. Therefore, this study can help entrepreneurs, business and political decision-makers to make better informed decisions, which can be particularly relevant in scenarios of uncertainty and crisis, such as the present, arising from the global pandemic.

As far as the authors know, the research carried out is the first centred on systematic analysis of entrepreneurial resilience and forms of collaboration. It gives a complete conceptual and theoretical picture of the evolution of research on the topic and accordingly points out possible avenues for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the regional perceptions of the Middle East region in relation to international commercial arbitration and show how these perceptions influence the attempts to harmonise the modern international law in the Middle East region.

Legal positivism as a general philosophy, mainly influenced by John Austin, is used as an analytical tool in order to identify the general trends from Western and Middle East cultural perspectives that relate to international commercial arbitration.

The paper shows how the Middle East region has different social and legal values between the West and the Middle East region in respect to the primarily three general and important features of the law – namely, normative, institutionalised, and coercive. Positivism legal theory shows that such success in the context of western European commercial law is inappropriate in the Middle East where different cultural norms make its wholesale and unqualified transferability problematic, notwithstanding its acceptance in highly generalised terms.

The paper generates a proposition that reforms are more likely to succeed if adjustments to the cultural environment are made. Thus, it supports the argument that regional values can add to the global activities of the harmonisation process of international commercial arbitration law.

The paper provides a clear understanding of the guidelines for the reform and development of Middle East international commercial arbitration. Legal culture should be taken into consideration if a successful reform is to be achieved.