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This paper examines whether participation in quality early child education (ECE) lessens special education needs and insulates children against requiring costly, intensive supports. Sixty years of longitudinal data coupled with new research in the United Kingdom and Canada were examined to demonstrate how quality ECE reduces special education needs and mitigates the intensity of later supports for children with special education needs. Research demonstrates that quality ECE strengthens children's language, literacy/numeracy, behavioural regulation, and enhances high-school completion. International longitudinal studies confirm that two years of quality ECE lowers special education placement by 40–60% for children with cognitive risk factors and 10–30% for social/behavioural risk factors. Explicit social-emotional learning outcomes also need to be embedded into ECE curricular frameworks, as maladaptive behaviours, once entrenched, are more difficult (and costly) to remediate. Children who do not have the benefit of attending quality ECE in the earliest years are more likely to encounter learning difficulties in school, in turn impacting the well-being and prosperity of their families and societies.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The author addresses the relationship between populism and authenticity in the contemporary era. The author argues that for populists, authenticity is more than an image-building strategy and instead is used strategically to maintain a powerful emotional connection with supporters that extends beyond election campaigns. The chapter also examines the rise of a distinct populist style (ordinariness, provocation, a certain kind of intimacy) that is used in opposition to an established political class. This style is often represented, and celebrated, through social media and increasingly defines what it means to be authentic in the political sphere.

The author argues that we must stop and take a look at what our insistence on human labour as the basis of our society is doing to us, and begin to search for possible alternatives. We need the vision and the courage to aim for the highest level of technology attainable for the widest possible use in both industry and services. We need financial arrangements that will encourage people to invent themselves out of work. Our goal, the article argues, must be the reduction of human labour to the greatest extent possible, to free people for more enjoyable, creative, human activities.

EU membership has been for the greater part of the post-authoritarian period (1974–2010) an important element of the Greek national consensus. Europe was commonly associated in public discourse with geopolitical security, democratic institutions and economic prosperity. Moreover, accession to the European Monetary Union in 2001 was celebrated as proof of a successful national course and as promise for economic growth. Nevertheless, challenges to pro-Europeanism both from the left and from the extreme right have risen in the context of the economic crisis (2010–2015). While Euro-sceptical attitudes are still a minority within Greek society – but significantly increased in relation to past trends – the discursive negotiation of Europe in the Greek public debate is characterized by ambiguity and has acquired various negative connotations (e.g. austerity policies, authoritarianism, German hegemony, democratic deficit in decision-making). In the highly-polarized Greek political debate, a new cleavage has emerged based on the acceptance or rejection of the loan agreements and the austerity policies associated with them (the so-called pro- vs. anti-memorandum cleavage) which have also transformed traditional Left vs. Right cleavage thus allowing for political alliances between left-ward and right-ward parties. It remains to be seen whether the new cleavage will take the form of a clash between pro-Europeanists vs. Euroscepticists as it is often argued in the context of Grexit scenarios. While this new dichotomy can be misleading especially if it is unambiguously interpreted in cultural terms, it describes a newly formed social and political tension that is under process. A special chapter in this respect is the currency debate; the dilemma between the euro and the drachma represents distinct ideological paradigms and power structures. The present chapter explores the discursive negotiation of Europe in the context of the Greek public debate analysing discourses produced both by political elites and mass media with special focus on the 2015 referendum campaign and the implications of the July 2015 Greece-EU agreement.

This chapter explores a relatively underresearched assumption in the diversity literature, namely, that more variety in demographic characteristics, educational or functional backgrounds, or hierarchical status in the workforce represents a wider repertoire of perspectives, approaches, and ways of thinking. Using data from members of innovation teams across 27 organizations in 11 industries (for which variation in thinking should be highly valued), we explore at the individual level whether people with different demographic and informational backgrounds evidence differences in ways of thinking which we define in terms of cognitive styles, learning styles, cultural orientations, and communication preferences. We find large differences in ways of thinking due to culture and communication preferences but modest and limited differences in ways of thinking by level and type of education, occupational function, and hierarchical status. We find few differences by gender. The findings raise questions about the frequently repeated claims that categorical and informational diversity among organizational members reflects differences in ways of thinking.