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To examine whether quality-of-life of a home's occupants varies in northern and southern hemisphere homes when the orientation of the home is always to the eastern sun (as prescribed by Maharishi Vedic Architecture) not orientated differently in northern and southern hemispheres to maximise light (as prescribed by western and Feng Shui architecture design).

A theoretical discussion of the use of sunlight and orientation in western, Feng Shui and Vedic approach to architecture, and then a cross-sectional quantitative survey conduced in 14 countries.

The lived experience of 158 home occupants in Maharishi Vedic Architecture did not vary from northern to southern hemispheres.

Research of this type has never been carried out before on Maharishi Vedic Architecture, except for one other study published in 2020 by these authors which considered the lived experience of home occupants. The amount of research on the basics of Vastu architecture is minimal.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the relationship between emotion and European energy forward prices of oil, gas, coal and electricity during normal times and periods of extreme price movements.

Methodology/Approach – We use a biorhythm approach characterized by the seasonal affective disorder (SAD) variable to study the impact of emotion on energy markets. Normal times and periods of extreme price movements are approximated by OLS and quantile estimations, respectively.

Findings – We use European energy forward prices of oil, gas, coal, and electricity. European equity future index (Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50) and euro/dollar US exchange rate are used as control variables for economic and financial environment. Estimating OLS and quantile regressions, we find that seasonal patterns have a significant impact during extreme volatility periods only. Further investigations reveal that the SAD effect is significant during periods of price decrease, but insignificant during price increase times. The out-of-sample predictive ability properties show that our “SAD model” outperforms significantly the pure “macroeconomic” one.

Originality/Value of chapter – This topic is novel in energy finance since I use psychological background theory to understand energy price dynamics. I illustrate the relevance of our approach by comparing the out-of-sample predictive ability of our model against macroeconomic one. My results could be considered to improve energy porfolio allocation.

In this interview, Paul Vaughan, Commercial Director of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), focuses on the challenges and opportunities that the sports industry faces from the transnational flow of capital, people, goods, services and images. Vaughan highlights the importance, even for an organisation keyed on the promotion, celebration and success of national identity, of engaging with and negotiating with the presence of transational organisations, institutions and movements.

This paper aims to provide a conceptual framework to analyse whether the global concept of sustainable city, generally produced as a goal in the cities of the global North, will be equally suitable in the cities of the global South or not.

Research has been based on a review of the literature, which has been collected from books, journals, reports and soft‐materials of the internet. A simple descriptive analytical approach is followed to examine the argument. The paper argues that a sustainable city should not be a goal, but a principle of effective service provisions based on social equity and justice.

Despite the main premise that a sustainable city is to achieve environmental, social and economic sustainability, the concept is widely criticised due to its disputable application in the cities of the South. The paper suggests that the sustainable city discourse does not include the main problems of the cities in the global South, even though, as a goal, it is efficient and effective in the developed countries of the global North. Thus, the paper concludes that a goal‐based sustainable city discourse of the global North will be misleading and inappropriate for the sustainable urban development in the cities of the global South.

Despite the widespread application of the sustainable city concept in developing countries, cities are facing numerous social, economic and environmental problems. Realising this fact, it is imperative to investigate the root‐causes of the problems. In line with this thinking, the paper offers a conceptual framework to analyse urban development policies in the cities of the global South.

The adverse impacts of climate change coupled with rapid informal urbanization in the Southern African region are increasing the vulnerability of already sensitive population groups. Consequently, these urban regions are highly vulnerable to urban heat island effects and heatwaves due to exogenous and endogenous factors. While the dynamic interplay between the built environment, climate and response strategies is known, this paper highlights the lived experience of informal settlement residents. It presents work from a project undertaken in Melusi, an informal settlement in Tshwane, South Africa, as a multi-disciplinary project focusing on improving the local resilience to climate change associated heat stress.

Following a mixed method approach, a semi-structured observational analysis of the spatial layout and material articulation of selected dwellings along with the continuous monitoring and recording of their indoor environments were undertaken.

The paper presents the research results in terms of the dwelling characteristics, as spatial and material-use strategies and documented heat stress exposure in these structures. The findings highlight that informal dwellings perform poorly in all cases due to endogenous factors and that inhabitants experience extreme heat stress conditions for between 6 and 10 h daily during the peak summer period.

Currently, there are little empirical data on the heat stress residents living in informal settlements in Southern Africa are experiencing. This article provides insight into the indoor environments of informal dwellings and hopes to contribute future guidelines or heat health policies.

The purpose of this paper is to engage with the discourse on the assumed existence of an distinct “African management” model. It critically deconstructs the concepts and submits an alternative strategy to address the need to understand what is happening in management of business in Africa.

Qualitative critical text analysis is used to understand the discourse on the nature of “African management” from the extant literature. The identity theory informs the understanding of the references to “African” as fundamental to identify a distinct management model. This analysis is supplemented by empirical case study research into successful African business.

Scholars failed to conceptualise what is “African”, and subsequently also what constitutes “African management”. This conceptual void undermines the critical reconstruction of a single African management model. Empirical research into actual management practices emerge as fundamental to systematic progress in this discourse. This research points to diverse management traditions converging into pragmatic practices.

Only a limited number of case studies were conducted into management history in Africa. This paper argues for an extended research programme, but this is future work.

It suggests a research strategy for scholars in African business studies, business history and management history to collaborate towards making a solid contribution to the economic development of our continent.

This research has the potential of forging collaboration in business among all of the people in Africa.

A critical text analysis is used to expose the conceptual lacunae that undermines progress in the discourse. This paper contributes to the literature on “African management” by systematically deconstructing the concept of “African identity” as a prerequisite to the management discourse. By signalling ethnic nostalgia, the critical reconceptualisation of Africanness offers an intellectually creative strategy out of the stalled discourse.

In preceding papers in this series, it has been shown that the symbols used in classificatory notation are of several kinds. They serve different functions—some represent scheduled classificatory terms, some are ‘signposts’ specifying the nature of the symbols which follow them, others are simply ‘fences’ separating consecutive term symbols, and yet others are relational particles. Again, symbols serving the same function may have different structures—they may be flexions or isolates, so that the notation for scheduled terms may be ‘hierarchical’ or ‘ordinal’.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of Australian climate scientists in advancing the state of knowledge about the causes and mechanisms of climatic change and variability in the Southern Hemisphere during the 1970 and 1980s.

The paper uses the methods and insights of environmental history and the history of science to analyse archival and published data pertaining to research on atmospheric pollution, the Southern Oscillation and the regional impacts of climate change.

Australia's geopolitical position, political interests and environmental sensitivities encouraged Australian scientists and policymakers to take a leading role in the Southern Hemisphere in the study of global environmental change.

This article builds on critiques of the ways in which planetary and global knowledge and governance disguise the local and situated scientific and material processes that construct, sustain and configure them.