Confronting sustainability grand challenges: how do standard-setters shape sustainability reporting standards and accountability practices?

This study critically reflects on how international sustainability standard-setters, namely the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG)—are responding to the environmental and social grand challenges by shaping sustainability reporting standards and accountability practice. Drawing on insights from the academic debate and the official resources of GSSB, ISSB, and EFRAG, this study performs a thematic analysis of public documents, such as meeting summaries, minutes and notes, audio recordings gathered from January 2022 to May 2024 related to the process and discussions on sustainability reporting standards. Findings reveal how the struggle to address grand environmental and social challenges unfolds in the standard-setting arena. Sustainability reporting standards emerge from power struggles among stakeholders within this field, thereby shaping the contours of these standards, with ISSB prioritizing financial market relevance and “desired” interconnectivity, GSSB centering broader stakeholder inclusivity, and EFRAG serving the European public interest in sustainability reporting. Each standard-setter underpins a ‘split of the cake’ leitmotif. Interoperability implies a strategic approach to align the work plans between the three boards. However, this process causes negotiating tensions, where materiality definitions serve as a key area of debate. This paper highlights how sustainability reporting standard-setting is relevant in the global response to the sustainability grand challenges, calling for more inclusive, transparent, and impactful approaches. It provides constructive reflections to address some criticisms directed at the dominant sustainability reporting standard-setters. This study highlights the interrelations between the actors involved and the need to negotiate relevant themes, such as interoperability, materiality, and connectivity. This research introduces a critical perspective to reflect on the attempts at standard-setting by multiple actors trying to regulate the same arena in response to the urgent need for systemic change. The findings advance the sustainability accounting literature by discussing how sustainability standard-setting is not merely a technical process but a highly contested arena where legitimacy and influence are continuously negotiated

Transphobia as a weapon of war: reporting on Russia’s trans community amidst heightened regulation, censorship and propaganda

In the wake of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, global attention has been focused on the atrocities committed there, overshadowing the repression of minoritised groups within Russia, including the LGBTQ community. Restrictions on the press have exacerbated the situation. This chapter explores the latest crackdown on the very existence of LGBTQ Russians, particularly those in the trans community, and the resultant impact of new legislation that curtails their rights. It also examines expanded laws that criminalise journalists and others reporting positively on LGBTQ issues, causing many to practice self-censorship by avoiding the topics entirely or framing them according to state-approved narratives. Using the Hierarchy of Influences framework and historical and comparative methodology, this chapter demonstrates how state policies towards Russia’s LGBTQ community, coupled with reporting restrictions, work together to strip it of previously held freedoms, and make it impossible for journalists to maintain autonomy when reporting on LGBTQ issues

Cut & paste contraptions: exploring the power of mobile collage and in-situ creativity

‘The currency of contemporary reportage drawing is in its proximity to its subject’ (Netter, 1994) Illustration and image-making have a rich heritage of documentation of people and spaces within locations. From the French En plein air ‘outdoors’ in situ painting method to the informative authority of reportage illustration. Through exploration of my practice, collage, I have sought to develop a small self-made portable collage kit. A phone camera, thermal printer (which facilitates the machine-aided illustration providing the live printed materials), chinagraph pencil, glue, scissors, and mini sketchbook. Alongside a self-made contraption to hold all these items which facilitates the ability to work with the kit in an efficient way. Whilst there is in-depth writing into drawing I suggest more research into portable collage would be beneficial for practitioners and through this poster I will contrast my kit with other portable image-making kits and technology exploring historical and contemporary apparatuses. For example, illustrating machines such as portable printmaking kits, underwater drawing kits, and self-made contraptions and gizmos like the drawing boards used by the reportage illustrator Harry Morgan. Examining my own unique use of the kit through autoethnography alongside idiographic practice analysis of how a range of other illustrators and image-makers have used it, this poster explores how the process of using portable making kits results in a special kind of creative capability and outcome

Digital platform capabilities and circular economy: impact of customer green pressure on frugal innovative strategies

Manufacturing entities in emerging economies face significant obstacles implementing circular economy principles due to resource‐constrained environments. Arguably, manufacturers need customer green pressure to propel the circular economy, alongside frugal innovative strategies. There is a dearth of research on digital platform (DP) capabilities, customer green pressure, and frugal innovative strategies with circular economy. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, 889 manufacturers were surveyed in the emerging economy of India. Customer green pressure moderation was assessed on the links between frugal innovative strategies and circular economy, DP integration capabilities and frugal innovation, and DP reconfiguration capabilities and frugal innovative strategies. Structural equation modelling revealed that DP integration and reconfiguration capabilities positively influence frugal innovation strategies enabling circular economy performance. Customer green pressure positively moderated DP reconfiguration and frugal innovative strategies. Actionable insights are provided to prioritize DP capability development to satisfy customer green pressure and promote frugal innovative strategies, ultimately facilitating the circular economy

Data-driven nonquadratic stabilization of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems

This work presents a new data-driven fuzzy control framework for the nonquadratic stabilization of Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy systems. We provide a data-driven stabilization condition via a nonquadratic Lyapunov function using only trajectory data collected from the system. Moreover, we propose a systematic methodology to obtain data-driven TS representations of nonlinear systems from a given dictionary of premise variables, via the sector nonlinearity approach. Besides synthesizing the fuzzy controller such that the origin of the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable, we provide an estimate of the region of attraction of the closed-loop equilibrium with formal guarantees. The estimate of the region of attraction is crucial to enable the implementation of the fuzzy controller in circumstances where the membership functions are well-defined for the state trajectory lying in a given region of validity. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed data-driven fuzzy control framework

The Science of ADHD (Second edition)

"ADHD remains one of the most widely misunderstood neurodevelopmental disorders, with debates surrounding its diagnosis, causes, and treatment continuing to evolve. The Science of ADHD provides a clear, balanced, and up-to-date exploration of this complex condition. With an accessible narrative style, author Chris Chandler expertly navigates the latest research to present an objective look at ADHD's neuroscience, genetics, psychological theories, and treatment approaches. The fully revised second edition reflects the latest advancements in the field, including updated diagnostic criteria and a nuanced discussion of ADHD as a neurodevelopmental disorder." (from publisher's website

Greece under New Democracy rule: a case of "liberal Illiberalism"?

[From the introduction] Illiberalism and democratic backsliding are often associated with the effects of populists in power. A large literature shows that extended periods of populist rule result in weakening of independent institutions and erosion of democratic norms and procedures (Chryssogelos et al. 2024). As a result, in Europe, the phenomenon of democratic backsliding is associated with the actions of governments under the full control of populist parties, a perspective particularly dominant in policy, journalistic and lay discourses. The paradigmatic case is Hungary under Viktor Orban since 2010, as well as Poland under the Law and Justice government between 2015-23 (Pirro/Stanley 2022). In this chapter however we want to problematise whether democratic backsliding can only happen under populist governments. A sizeable literature argues that this is possible. Levitsky and Way (2012) claim that democratic norms can be undermined all the while the formal institutions of democracy remain intact under non-populist parties in power. Lührmann and Lindberg (2019) speak of a global wave of "autocratisation" that can equally emanate from pre-existing elites and implemented through legal and incremental means. Despite the findings of this literature, the impression remains dominant in Europe that non-populist governments are generally "safe" for democracy, not least because such governments explicitly use this rhetoric against their opponents. This is particularly evident in the literature that critically analyzes how the EU can be amenable to democratic backsliding in its member-states, yet its focus remains squarely on populist governments (Emmons/Pavone 2021; Kelemen 2020; 2022) The question then in the particular context of the European Union becomes even more specific: can explicit anti-populism actually lead to processes of democratic backsliding? We explore the outlines of a tentative answer by looking at the case of Greece. Between 2015-19 Greece was ruled by a fully populist coalition of two parties of the populist left and right, prompting concerns among scholars and policymakers about the future of democratic rule (Matsaganis 2015). But while the SYRIZA-led government left a lot to be desired in terms of policy competence and quality of public discourse, it is arguably since the centre-right New Democracy party returned to power in a single-party government in 2019 that, according to NGOs and other authorities, media freedom, judicial independence and the independence of regulatory bodies have been suffering (European Commission 2024a, 19, 26). Can developments in Greece since 2019 then be seen through the lens of "backsliding" and "illiberalism"

The industrialized designer: gender, identity and professionalisation in Britain and the United States, 1930-80

This is a book review of: The industrialized designer: gender, identity and professionalisation in Britain and the United States, 1930-80 / by Leah Armstrong, (Manchester University Press, 2024). In his talk at the 1971 Design Research Society Conference on the topic of design participation, Reyner Banham declared that "a professional is a problem-oriented man". He went on to explain that the expertise through which professions were defined relied on the definitions of problems, meaning that professionals had a vested interest in maintaining those problems. Banham cast designers as problem makers rather than problem solvers. Leah Armstrong’s book opens with a related quote from Ivan Illich, who in 1977 declared that the age when people had problems and experts had solutions was over and the "illusion of professional omniscience and omnipotence" (page 1) was being called into question. The 1970s was the decade of the 'crisis of professionalism', captured in Banham and Illich’s polemics. Armstrong’s insightful book, structured over six thematic and broadly chronological chapters, traces how the design profession arrived at this moment of crisis. It asks how the ideas and practices of professionalisation in design were defined and disseminated in Britain and the United States throughout the middle decades of the twentieth century and why, ultimately, they were doomed to failure. This critical history, unpicks - through detailed archival research in professional organisations and private collections and oral histories - how the profession of designer came to be characterised and, crucially, gendered. There are also important reflections on how the legacy of this twentieth-century professionalisation continues to shape discourses in design and the role of the designer today

Populism and international relations theories

International relations (IR) theories form an important background and foundation to any analysis of foreign policy making. This chapter discusses how populism relates to the major theoretical traditions of IR (realist, liberal, constructivist, critical) and the implications for the study of foreign policy. It is argued that the global rise of populism challenges these traditions on multiple levels. It undermines many of their ontological assumptions, it poses an ideological challenge to many of their underlying normative inclinations, and politicizes their insights as populist leaders are particularly apt to appropriate different elements of IR theories in the shape of ‘folk theories’ to legitimize their foreign policy choices. However, the chapter also shows that all IR theories still have the tools to accommodate the practices and ideas of populism in their analysis of international politics, provided some adjustments are made. The chapter discusses how this matters for the study of foreign policy

Enhancing gender-based violence research: holistic approaches to data collection and analysis

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a profound and pervasive societal issue, disproportionately affecting women across diverse settings, including homes, workplaces, and public spaces. Despite its prevalence, significant challenges impede research on GBV, particularly regarding data collection, analysis, and ethical handling. This study investigates the complexities inherent in GBV research, focusing on the obstacles posed by under-reporting, ethical considerations, data quality, and the need for cross-comparative standards. Using a combination of police records, web scraping, news reports, and survey data from USAID’s Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), our study examines strategies to work with sensitive GBV datasets, while maintaining data integrity. Our study advocates for improved demographic surveying and data integration methodologies that can enhance data accuracy and comparability. The findings suggest that while technological advancements, particularly generative AI and machine learning approaches, offer promising avenues for automating survey processes, reducing costs, and enhancing data collection efficiency, they present the limitations of secondary datasets, a lack of data disaggregation, and discrepancies in data coding systems, which highlight the necessity of refining global data standards