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This research paper aims to explore how secondary school-aged business owners utilise social media to engage in informal learning. The authors make use of the concept of a self-directed experiential learning cycle to empirically explore adolescents’ entrepreneurial learning processes without formal guidance or curriculum.

The study adopts a one-on-one interview approach with a critical incident technique in interviewing to examine the experiences of 10 Grade 9–11 business owners who run social media-based businesses on Instagram.

The results demonstrate that student business owners were able to capitalise on social media for venture creation and informal learning. They effectively engaged in experiential learning cycles with active help-seeking and mentorship in response to challenges in their business journey. A variety of resources within social media, their social circle and the internet were employed by students, highlighting the role the self-directed element plays in their experiential learning process.

The research urges institutions to recognise the potential of informal learning on social media and offer more support to strengthen students’ learning.

This research represents the first exploratory study on the potential of school-age teens’ self-initiated informal entrepreneurial learning while testifying the theory of the self-directed experiential learning cycle in the context of social media businesses. The study offers novel insights into the fields of students’ informal learning, entrepreneurial learning and social media learning.

The Ukrainian conflict, a real-world case study, vividly illustrates the threat autocratic regimes pose to democratic systems on a global scale, symbolizing a battle between freedom and authoritarianism. It is a stark reminder of the destabilizing effects of the spread of autocracy. This trend has replaced the previous wave of global democratic expansion and puts international peace and ecological sustainability at risk. Through a meticulous and comprehensive examination of contemporary autocratic rise, this study presents compelling evidence that clarifies the harmful outcomes of democratic erosion in emerging autocracies and their negative influence on global peacekeeping efforts and environmental preservation initiatives. In essence, this research study underscores the complex interplay between conflict and harmony and the dynamics of autocratic proliferation and democratic decline, all of which collectively shape the landscape of global security and environmental sustainability initiatives.

Through Bourdieusian sociology, this study aims to interpret a globalized symbolic environment ward by the States and dominated by organizations through the States’ Nobilities enticing and the Euro-American influences disseminated by the cultural circuit of capitalism in the inculcation and incorporation of a class habitus conniving with this logic of domination.

This study has developed a theoretical essay based on the contributions of Bourdieusian sociology to discuss and understand the following concepts and their respective relationships: symbolic environment, globalization, organizations, State, State Nobility, Euro-American influences, cultural circuit of capitalism and class habitus.

The arguments built throughout this theoretical essay recognized how class habitus on environment contributes to organizations establishing themselves as a space that consolidates and replicates the domination logic. As indicated, the State Nobility is an intermediary element between dominant organizations and the State, as dominated.

This theoretical essay signals that less harmful alliances between organizations, the State Nobility and the State could culminate in social, environmental and economic scenarios provided with more inclusion, diversity and preservation.

This study presents an in-depth conceptual analysis to hold power structures responsible as direct and indirect drivers of environmental problems, with their different proportions and severity levels, affecting the planet.

This study proposes an alternative lens to debate and question how much the results presented by the contemporary world order compensate (if in any way) the damage that invades and deteriorate environmental assets.

Generation Z (GenZers) significantly influences sustainability-related issues in emerging economies like India. Literature on sustainability suggests exploring ways to enhance their sustainable behavior, especially for food and clothing products, which have detrimental consequences despite being essential. Mindfulness is often proposed as a factor that could potentially influence sustainability. However, the empirical association between mindfulness and sustainable consumption behavior (SCB) and the underlying pathways remain underexplored. Therefore, this study aims to advance the empirical understanding of how GenZers’ trait mindfulness affects their SCB for food and clothing.

Based on a time-lagged study involving responses from 519 Indian GenZers (college students aged 18–24 years) the authors examined two models (one for SCB related to food and one for clothing) to explore the direct relationships and mediating factors between trait mindfulness and SCB.

GenZers with higher levels of trait mindfulness are more likely to influence their SCB for food and clothing. Besides, in both models, self-regulation, self-compassion and prosocialness mediate the association between trait mindfulness and SCB.

Mindfulness and its intervening variables are promising for positively driving SCB for food and clothing. Marketers and policymakers can consider these findings to strategize and encourage sustainable consumption, particularly among GenZers.

This seminal study uses the reperceiving theory to empirically validate the relationship between GenZers’ trait mindfulness and SCB for food and clothing.

After discussing the fundamental importance of education, touching upon its role in cognitive and social development, the chapter highlights the urgency of ensuring equitable access to quality education for all children, regardless of their social backgrounds, and tackling the barriers that hinder educational access for marginalized groups. Subsequently, the chapter examines the historical challenges that indigenous communities have faced, particularly in relation to oppressive educational policies imposed by colonial powers and dominant governments. Drawing from the context of SDG 4 and the broader 2030 Agenda, the chapter concludes by emphasazing the critical role of education in safeguarding cultural diversity and promoting social inclusion, while showcasing the innovative efforts in helping indigenous communities reclaim and revitalize their linguistic and cultural heritage on a global scale.

This paper aims to contend that populism is damaging to both domestic and international politics; not only does it erode liberal democracy in established democracies but also fuels authoritarianism in despotic regimes and aggravates conflicts and crises in international system.

The research is divided into two main sections. First, it examines how populist mobilization affects liberal democracy, and refutes the claims that populism is beneficial and reinforcing to democracy. Second, it attempts to demonstrate how populism is damaging to domestic politics (by undermining liberal democracy and supporting authoritarianism) as well as international relations (by making interstate conflicts more likely to materialize). Theoretically, populism is assumed to be a strategy used by politicians to maximize their interest. Hence, populism is a strategy used by politicians to mobilize constituents using the main features of populist discourse.

The research argues that populism has detrimental consequences on both domestic and international politics; it undermines liberal democracy in democratic countries, upsurges authoritarianism in autocratic regimes and heightens the level of conflict and crises in international politics. Populism can lead to authoritarianism. There is one major undemocratic trait shared by all populist waves around the world, particularly democracies; that is anti-pluralism/anti-institutions. Populist leaders perceive foreign policy as the continuation of domestic politics, because they consider themselves as the only true representatives of the people. Therefore, populist actors abandon any political opposition as necessarily illegitimate, with repercussions on foreign policy.

Some scholars argue that populism reinforces democracy by underpinning its ability to include marginalized sectors of the society and to decrease voter apathy, the research refuted these arguments. Populism is destructive to world democracy; populists are reluctant to embrace the idea of full integration with other nations. Populists reject the idea of open borders, and reckon it an apparent threat to their national security. The research concludes that populists consider maximizing their national interests on the international level by following confrontational policies instead of cooperative ones.

Implementation of initiatives intended to achieve net zero will require very considerable investment. Whilst there are undoubted potentially immense benefits that will result from the transition to an economy that is based around the principles of net zero, all governments recognise the dilemma of making announcements necessitating spending many billions on this objective. This chapter examines the economic logic underpinning the quest to deal with the calamitous consequences of implementing measures essential to reduce emissions causing global warming. Using the UK as an exemplar, the political challenge and consequences of implementing economic changes required to produce net zero is considered. As is described, short-term expediency is frequently adopted as a way to avoid making difficult decisions to achieve not only long-term economic gain but almost universally regarded as essential to arrest the dire consequences that will befall future generations if immediate and urgent action is not taken. Drawing on previous research justifying the need to act now, this chapter potentially examines ways for governments to derive additional revenue, most particularly carbon taxes and emissions-trading schemes (ETS) as a way to fund investment in net zero through capital investment. As analysis of contemporary events suggests, the urgency of intervention all too frequently becomes a casualty of the need by political parties to avoid confronting tough choices by postponing such decisions.