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The chapter discusses the characteristics of audiovisual (AV) media sectors in the Baltic Sea region. Therein it focuses on the specifics of media industries in small countries in the region as they are challenged in ways notably different from large countries with large domestic markets for media content. It discusses the differences between the AV media industries in the Nordic and Baltic countries and suggests that while in the first case long-term welfare society policies and conscious policy-driven system building have conditioned growth and international success then also in the second case innovation policy rationales have facilitated recent growth and dynamics. It then discusses the specific challenges, especially platformisation to small media industries in contemporary globalising media markets, and suggests that opportunities to resist these challenges may be in local inter-sectoral cooperation, that is, in building cross-innovation systems.

This chapter examines the micro-level dynamics of cross-innovation involving audiovisual and educational expertise through the prism of two cases: an augmented reality-based chemistry learning app developed in Estonia and a 360-degree short film project aimed at documenting and raising awareness about historical buildings in Lithuania. Based on the two cases, the chapter outlines several trends: the broadening of the notion of education beyond institutional education; the growing interest in public–private partnerships; and the emergence of heterogeneous networks feeding into the larger epistemic community of educational innovators. It also highlights a number of challenges that members of this community may face, including institutional resistance to change, schools’ lack of resources, teachers’ and administrators’ reluctance to use new technology and emerging technologies’ lack of maturity.

This chapter looks at the sex trade in Japanese society and the manner in which it has been accepted for decades, both socially and legally, as a ‘necessary evil’. This passive and disinterested tolerance of the industry's quasi-legal state, neither banning prostitution completely nor ensuring that it follows the transparent rules and regulations expected of other industries, means that it fails to satisfy either of the primary views on transactional sex: prohibition or legalisation. The result is that the women involved in the industry are subject to various forms of exploitation and abuse that the Japanese government, by failing to take active steps to reform the industry in either direction, becomes complicit to. Shaped by personal interviews with members of the industry and the NGOs that provide them with support, the chapter provides an examination of the industry's historical development, its portrayal in popular media and the prevailing social norms regarding the industry. It then assesses the political and legal responses to the industry and the glaring oversights that exist in their failure to provide adequate support. Finally, it considers, based upon the self-expressed interests of the women working in the industry, in what areas meaningful reform might occur.

As a form of gender-based violence, sexual harassment represents one of the most serious obstacles to gender equality in higher education institutions. A systematic and institutional response is required in order for the problem to be regulated. This chapter provides a short overview of the existing institutional mechanisms adopted – with the support system built within the TARGET project – at the University of Belgrade and its member institutions, as a possible and good practice model of institutional interventions dealing with this issue. With three member faculties already having previously introduced their own rulebooks, the first University of Belgrade Rulebook on the Prevention of and Protection from Sexual Harassment was adopted university-wide in 2021. This document represents an important step forward and a substantial support to all the member institutions in the process of regulating the prevention of and protection from sexual harassment and thus contributes substantially to gender equality at all levels of the institution.

In this chapter, I explore two media texts, Imtiaz Ali's Highway and Alankrita Shrivastava's Netflix original series Bombay Begums (2021). I contend that recent filmmakers have begun to arguably reframe the narratives of rape victim-survivors and disrupting the cultural of silence described above. They offer progressive and multi-faceted representations of these experiences, such that there is an opportunity for a dialogue within both private and public spheres. What I mean when I say that they are ‘progressive representations’ is that the rape victim-survivors are not merely reduced to helpless women in distress, nor painted as vengeful, aggressive characters. Instead, their characterisation shows that they have agency and autonomy, but at the same time struggle with the repercussions of speaking out against their perpetrators in a society that does not support them wholly.

This chapter is a transcript of an open-ended discussion that occurred between the authors when they met to discuss the subject matter of the third section of the book, which focuses on cultural and normative attitudes toward the problem of gender violence. As with the previous introductory dialogues, the discussion takes place after preliminary drafts have been completed and the authors share their thoughts on the subjects that they will each discuss in more detail in the following chapters. These include the culture of silence surrounding rape in India, the way masculine gender norms impact the treatment of women in Japan and the cultural factors that drive microaggressions targeted at LGBTQ+ people in South Africa.