Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509519467
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
In this important book, Niklas Luhmann uses his powers as an analyst of the social system to examine two of the most important concepts which hold that system together and allow it to evolve: trust and power. He criticises those theoretical accounts whose roots lie in what he refers to as ideologies – accounts which use implicit beliefs in particular conceptions of human nature to explain and predict social action in a one-dimensional way. Theories of rational choice and moralistic explanations are taken to task, as are the theories of both Marx and Habermas. Luhmann's unique scientific sociology underpins every page and enables him to highlight the potential shortcomings of these narrative approaches. Underlying this approach is the idea that ideologically-based social theory, whether critical or conservative, is unable to do justice to the complexities existing within the parameters of social systems, individuals, and the interactions between them. He aims to show instead how only a painstaking systems analysis can capture these intricacies. Although written over 40 years ago, Luhmann's complex vision of the operations of trust and power provides a wealth of insights of considerable value to scholars and students grappling with contemporary social and economic problems. The editors' introduction to this new edition and the significant revisions they have made to the translation will help to reveal the richness and clarity of this vision and its relevance to the ways that trust and power operate in today's society.
Trust and Power
Author: Niklas Luhmann
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509519467
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
In this important book, Niklas Luhmann uses his powers as an analyst of the social system to examine two of the most important concepts which hold that system together and allow it to evolve: trust and power. He criticises those theoretical accounts whose roots lie in what he refers to as ideologies – accounts which use implicit beliefs in particular conceptions of human nature to explain and predict social action in a one-dimensional way. Theories of rational choice and moralistic explanations are taken to task, as are the theories of both Marx and Habermas. Luhmann's unique scientific sociology underpins every page and enables him to highlight the potential shortcomings of these narrative approaches. Underlying this approach is the idea that ideologically-based social theory, whether critical or conservative, is unable to do justice to the complexities existing within the parameters of social systems, individuals, and the interactions between them. He aims to show instead how only a painstaking systems analysis can capture these intricacies. Although written over 40 years ago, Luhmann's complex vision of the operations of trust and power provides a wealth of insights of considerable value to scholars and students grappling with contemporary social and economic problems. The editors' introduction to this new edition and the significant revisions they have made to the translation will help to reveal the richness and clarity of this vision and its relevance to the ways that trust and power operate in today's society.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509519467
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
In this important book, Niklas Luhmann uses his powers as an analyst of the social system to examine two of the most important concepts which hold that system together and allow it to evolve: trust and power. He criticises those theoretical accounts whose roots lie in what he refers to as ideologies – accounts which use implicit beliefs in particular conceptions of human nature to explain and predict social action in a one-dimensional way. Theories of rational choice and moralistic explanations are taken to task, as are the theories of both Marx and Habermas. Luhmann's unique scientific sociology underpins every page and enables him to highlight the potential shortcomings of these narrative approaches. Underlying this approach is the idea that ideologically-based social theory, whether critical or conservative, is unable to do justice to the complexities existing within the parameters of social systems, individuals, and the interactions between them. He aims to show instead how only a painstaking systems analysis can capture these intricacies. Although written over 40 years ago, Luhmann's complex vision of the operations of trust and power provides a wealth of insights of considerable value to scholars and students grappling with contemporary social and economic problems. The editors' introduction to this new edition and the significant revisions they have made to the translation will help to reveal the richness and clarity of this vision and its relevance to the ways that trust and power operate in today's society.
The Power of Trust
Author: Sandra J. Sucher
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541756665
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
A ground-breaking exploration of the changing nature of trust and how to bridge the gap from where you are to where you need to be. Trust is the most powerful force underlying the success of every business. Yet it can be shattered in an instant, with a devastating impact on a company’s market cap and reputation. How to build and sustain trust requires fresh insight into why customers, employees, community members, and investors decide whether an organization can be trusted. Based on two decades of research and illustrated through vivid storytelling, Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta examine the economic impact of trust and the science behind it, and conclusively prove that trust is built from the inside out. Trust emerges from a company being the “real deal”: creating products and services that work, having good intentions, treating people fairly, and taking responsibility for all the impacts an organization creates, whether intended or not. When trust is in the room, great things can happen. Sucher and Gupta’s innovative foundation for executing the elements of trust—competence, motives, means, impact—explains how trust can be woven into the day-to-day and the long term. Most importantly, even when lost, trust can be regained, as illustrated through their accounts of companies across the globe that pull themselves out of scandal and corruption by rebuilding the vital elements of trust.
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541756665
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
A ground-breaking exploration of the changing nature of trust and how to bridge the gap from where you are to where you need to be. Trust is the most powerful force underlying the success of every business. Yet it can be shattered in an instant, with a devastating impact on a company’s market cap and reputation. How to build and sustain trust requires fresh insight into why customers, employees, community members, and investors decide whether an organization can be trusted. Based on two decades of research and illustrated through vivid storytelling, Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta examine the economic impact of trust and the science behind it, and conclusively prove that trust is built from the inside out. Trust emerges from a company being the “real deal”: creating products and services that work, having good intentions, treating people fairly, and taking responsibility for all the impacts an organization creates, whether intended or not. When trust is in the room, great things can happen. Sucher and Gupta’s innovative foundation for executing the elements of trust—competence, motives, means, impact—explains how trust can be woven into the day-to-day and the long term. Most importantly, even when lost, trust can be regained, as illustrated through their accounts of companies across the globe that pull themselves out of scandal and corruption by rebuilding the vital elements of trust.
Trust and Power
Author: Sally H. Clarke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521120388
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Trust and Power argues that corporations have faced conflicts with the very consumers whose loyalty they sought. The book provides novel insights into the dialogue between modern corporations and consumers by examining automobiles during the 20th century. In the new market at the turn of the century, automakers produced defective cars, and consumers faced risks of physical injuries as well as financial losses. By the 1920s automobiles were sold in a mass market where state agencies intervened to monitor, however imperfectly, product quality and fair pricing mechanisms. After 1945, the market matured as most U.S. families came to rely on auto transport. Automakers sold a product suited to the unequal distribution of income. Again, the state intervened to regulate relations between buyers and sellers in terms of who had access to credit, and thus the ability to purchase expensive durables like automobiles.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521120388
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Trust and Power argues that corporations have faced conflicts with the very consumers whose loyalty they sought. The book provides novel insights into the dialogue between modern corporations and consumers by examining automobiles during the 20th century. In the new market at the turn of the century, automakers produced defective cars, and consumers faced risks of physical injuries as well as financial losses. By the 1920s automobiles were sold in a mass market where state agencies intervened to monitor, however imperfectly, product quality and fair pricing mechanisms. After 1945, the market matured as most U.S. families came to rely on auto transport. Automakers sold a product suited to the unequal distribution of income. Again, the state intervened to regulate relations between buyers and sellers in terms of who had access to credit, and thus the ability to purchase expensive durables like automobiles.
The Power of Trust: How Top Companies Build, Manage and Protect It
Author: Natalie Doyle Oldfield
Publisher: Paperback
ISBN: 9780994041630
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Trust is the most basic quality at the heart of every relationship. We understand it naturally and our inner alarms go off when trust is damaged or absent. But most business leaders consider trust to be something intangible and difficult to quantify.This book clearly demonstrates that trust is both measurable and manageable. It offers a practical guide to building and protecting trust, and making it part of the balance sheet of every organization. Natalie Doyle Oldfield has spent years studying trust. She lays out a practical, step-by-step approach that will enable everyone from the CEO to the front line employee to thrive in a culture of trust.By taking a look at the science and research, case studies of trust broken and rebuilt, and the reflections of leading business figures, this book will show you how to create trusting relationships with customers, employees and stakeholders. It will show you how to make trust part of your core business strategy and how to make it pay off on the bottom line. "In this groundbreaking book you'll hear real case studies about why the businesses that operate on a strong foundation of trust and integrity, dramatically outperform. Better still, Natalie shows you, with results from her original research, how you can join their ranks!"Cathleen Fillmore Owner, Speakers Gold Bureau"Natalie changed the way we view our customers, our thought process and everything we do - we now see things in a different way. Since working with Natalie and implementing the Trust Building Model and the Client Trust Index(TM) we now have a customer performance metric and benchmark to measure customer experience."Kevin Pelley, CEO, Kohltech Windows and Entrance Systems"Natalie has coined the importance of trust and offers a toolbox to implement the thinking and strategy. This book is a not to be missed compendium relevant for negotiators, executive, leaders of government and the rest of us. I will certainly be using this book in my work."Keld Jensen, award winning author of The Trust Factor"Natalie's style immediately engages you with examples and best practices, spelling out just how leading companies have outpaced those in their industries by investing in their employees and customers."David Alston, Chief Innovation Officer, Introhive"Natalie Doyle Oldfield's well-researched and expertly crafted work takes you on a journey to understand the bottom line benefits of creating and managing trusting business relationships. The Power of Trust will stand out on bookshelves as one of the best business books published in recent years. It's balanced with what goes to the heart of what matters most "Trust". Kathy Malley, APR, FCPRS, Vice President, Malley Industries Inc
Publisher: Paperback
ISBN: 9780994041630
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Trust is the most basic quality at the heart of every relationship. We understand it naturally and our inner alarms go off when trust is damaged or absent. But most business leaders consider trust to be something intangible and difficult to quantify.This book clearly demonstrates that trust is both measurable and manageable. It offers a practical guide to building and protecting trust, and making it part of the balance sheet of every organization. Natalie Doyle Oldfield has spent years studying trust. She lays out a practical, step-by-step approach that will enable everyone from the CEO to the front line employee to thrive in a culture of trust.By taking a look at the science and research, case studies of trust broken and rebuilt, and the reflections of leading business figures, this book will show you how to create trusting relationships with customers, employees and stakeholders. It will show you how to make trust part of your core business strategy and how to make it pay off on the bottom line. "In this groundbreaking book you'll hear real case studies about why the businesses that operate on a strong foundation of trust and integrity, dramatically outperform. Better still, Natalie shows you, with results from her original research, how you can join their ranks!"Cathleen Fillmore Owner, Speakers Gold Bureau"Natalie changed the way we view our customers, our thought process and everything we do - we now see things in a different way. Since working with Natalie and implementing the Trust Building Model and the Client Trust Index(TM) we now have a customer performance metric and benchmark to measure customer experience."Kevin Pelley, CEO, Kohltech Windows and Entrance Systems"Natalie has coined the importance of trust and offers a toolbox to implement the thinking and strategy. This book is a not to be missed compendium relevant for negotiators, executive, leaders of government and the rest of us. I will certainly be using this book in my work."Keld Jensen, award winning author of The Trust Factor"Natalie's style immediately engages you with examples and best practices, spelling out just how leading companies have outpaced those in their industries by investing in their employees and customers."David Alston, Chief Innovation Officer, Introhive"Natalie Doyle Oldfield's well-researched and expertly crafted work takes you on a journey to understand the bottom line benefits of creating and managing trusting business relationships. The Power of Trust will stand out on bookshelves as one of the best business books published in recent years. It's balanced with what goes to the heart of what matters most "Trust". Kathy Malley, APR, FCPRS, Vice President, Malley Industries Inc
In AI We Trust
Author: Helga Nowotny
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509548823
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 125
Book Description
One of the most persistent concerns about the future is whether it will be dominated by the predictive algorithms of AI – and, if so, what this will mean for our behaviour, for our institutions and for what it means to be human. AI changes our experience of time and the future and challenges our identities, yet we are blinded by its efficiency and fail to understand how it affects us. At the heart of our trust in AI lies a paradox: we leverage AI to increase our control over the future and uncertainty, while at the same time the performativity of AI, the power it has to make us act in the ways it predicts, reduces our agency over the future. This happens when we forget that that we humans have created the digital technologies to which we attribute agency. These developments also challenge the narrative of progress, which played such a central role in modernity and is based on the hubris of total control. We are now moving into an era where this control is limited as AI monitors our actions, posing the threat of surveillance, but also offering the opportunity to reappropriate control and transform it into care. As we try to adjust to a world in which algorithms, robots and avatars play an ever-increasing role, we need to understand better the limitations of AI and how their predictions affect our agency, while at the same time having the courage to embrace the uncertainty of the future.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509548823
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 125
Book Description
One of the most persistent concerns about the future is whether it will be dominated by the predictive algorithms of AI – and, if so, what this will mean for our behaviour, for our institutions and for what it means to be human. AI changes our experience of time and the future and challenges our identities, yet we are blinded by its efficiency and fail to understand how it affects us. At the heart of our trust in AI lies a paradox: we leverage AI to increase our control over the future and uncertainty, while at the same time the performativity of AI, the power it has to make us act in the ways it predicts, reduces our agency over the future. This happens when we forget that that we humans have created the digital technologies to which we attribute agency. These developments also challenge the narrative of progress, which played such a central role in modernity and is based on the hubris of total control. We are now moving into an era where this control is limited as AI monitors our actions, posing the threat of surveillance, but also offering the opportunity to reappropriate control and transform it into care. As we try to adjust to a world in which algorithms, robots and avatars play an ever-increasing role, we need to understand better the limitations of AI and how their predictions affect our agency, while at the same time having the courage to embrace the uncertainty of the future.
Building Trust at the Speed of Change
Author: Edward M. Marshall
Publisher: Amacom Books
ISBN: 9780814404782
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Offers a model for building organizations that can swiftly and effectively respond to rapidly changing business needs through methods that value principles over power and people over processes, focusing on integrity, trust, and collaboration
Publisher: Amacom Books
ISBN: 9780814404782
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Offers a model for building organizations that can swiftly and effectively respond to rapidly changing business needs through methods that value principles over power and people over processes, focusing on integrity, trust, and collaboration
Power, Trust, and Meaning
Author: S. N. Eisenstadt
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226195568
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
S. N. Eisenstadt is well known for his wide-ranging investigations of modernization, social stratification, revolution, comparative civilization, and political development. This collection of twelve major theoretical essays spans more than forty years of research, to explore systematically the bases of human action and society. Framed by a new introduction and an extensive epilogue, which are themselves important statements about processes of institutional formations and cultural creativity, the essays trace the major developments of contemporary sociological theory and analysis. Examining themes of trust and solidarity among immigrants, youth groups, and generations, and in friendships, kinships, and patron-client relationships, Eisenstadt explores larger questions of social structure and agency, conflict and change, and the reconstitution of the social order. He looks also at political and religious systems, paying particular attention to great historical empires and the major civilizations. United by what they reveal about three major dimensions of social life—power, trust, and meaning—these essays offer a vision of culture as both a preserving and a transforming aspect of social life, thus providing a new perspective on the relations between culture and social structure.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226195568
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
S. N. Eisenstadt is well known for his wide-ranging investigations of modernization, social stratification, revolution, comparative civilization, and political development. This collection of twelve major theoretical essays spans more than forty years of research, to explore systematically the bases of human action and society. Framed by a new introduction and an extensive epilogue, which are themselves important statements about processes of institutional formations and cultural creativity, the essays trace the major developments of contemporary sociological theory and analysis. Examining themes of trust and solidarity among immigrants, youth groups, and generations, and in friendships, kinships, and patron-client relationships, Eisenstadt explores larger questions of social structure and agency, conflict and change, and the reconstitution of the social order. He looks also at political and religious systems, paying particular attention to great historical empires and the major civilizations. United by what they reveal about three major dimensions of social life—power, trust, and meaning—these essays offer a vision of culture as both a preserving and a transforming aspect of social life, thus providing a new perspective on the relations between culture and social structure.
Trust, Power and Public Relations in Financial Markets
Author: Clea Bourne
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317963954
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 172
Book Description
The public relations profession positions itself as expert in building trust throughout global markets, particularly after crisis strikes. Successive crises have tainted financial markets in recent years. Calls to restore trust in finance have been particularly pressing, given trust’s crucial role as lubricant in global financial engines. Nonetheless, years after the global financial crisis, trust in financial markets remains both tenuous and controversial. This book explores PR in financial markets, posing a fundamental question about PR professionals as would-be ‘trust strategists’. If PR promotes its expertise in building and restoring trust, how can it ignore its potential role in losing trust in the first place? Drawing on examples from state finance, international lending agencies, trade bodies, financial institutions and consumer groups in mature and emerging financial centres, this book explores the wide-ranging role of PR in financial markets, including: State finance and debt capital markets Investor relations, M&A and IPOs Corporate communications for financial institutions Product promotion and consumer finance Financial trade associations and lobbying Consumerism and financial activism. Far reaching and challenging, this innovative book will be essential reading for researchers, advanced students and professionals in PR, communication and finance.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317963954
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 172
Book Description
The public relations profession positions itself as expert in building trust throughout global markets, particularly after crisis strikes. Successive crises have tainted financial markets in recent years. Calls to restore trust in finance have been particularly pressing, given trust’s crucial role as lubricant in global financial engines. Nonetheless, years after the global financial crisis, trust in financial markets remains both tenuous and controversial. This book explores PR in financial markets, posing a fundamental question about PR professionals as would-be ‘trust strategists’. If PR promotes its expertise in building and restoring trust, how can it ignore its potential role in losing trust in the first place? Drawing on examples from state finance, international lending agencies, trade bodies, financial institutions and consumer groups in mature and emerging financial centres, this book explores the wide-ranging role of PR in financial markets, including: State finance and debt capital markets Investor relations, M&A and IPOs Corporate communications for financial institutions Product promotion and consumer finance Financial trade associations and lobbying Consumerism and financial activism. Far reaching and challenging, this innovative book will be essential reading for researchers, advanced students and professionals in PR, communication and finance.
Trust First
Author: Bruce Deel
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525538178
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
If we choose to trust unconditionally, how many lives could we change? When Pastor Bruce Deel took over the Mission Church in the 30314 zip code of Atlanta, he had orders to shut it down. The church was old and decrepit, and its neighborhood--known as "Better Leave, You Effing Fool," or "the Bluff," for short--had the highest rates of crime, homelessness, and incarceration in Georgia. Expecting his time there to only last six months, Deel was not prepared for what happened next. One Sunday, he was approached by a woman he didn't know. "I've been hooking and stripping for fourteen years," she said. "Can you help me?" Soon after, Bruce founded an organization called City of Refuge rooted in the principle of radical trust. Other nonprofits might drug test before offering housing, lock up valuables, or veto a program giving job skills and character references to felons as "a liability." But Bruce believed the best way to improve outcomes for the marginalized and impoverished was to extend them trust, even if that trust was violated multiple times--and even if someone didn't yet trust themselves. Since then, City of Refuge has helped over 20,000 people in Atlanta's toughest neighborhood escape the cycles of homelessness, joblessness, and drug abuse. Of course, trust alone can't overcome a broken system that perpetuates inequality. Presenting an unvarnished window into the lives of ex-cons, drug addicts, human trafficking survivors, and displaced souls who have come through City of Refuge, Trust First examines the context in which Bruce's Atlanta neighborhood went downhill--and what City of Refuge chose to do about it. They've become a one-stop-shop for transitional housing, on-site medical and mental health care, childcare, and vocational training, including accredited intensives in auto tech, culinary arts, and coding. While most social services focus on one pain point and leave the burden on the poor to find the crosstown bus that'll serve their other needs, Bruce argues that bringing someone out of homelessness requires treating all of their needs simultaneously. This model has proven so effective that a dozen new chapters of City of Refuge have opened in the US, including in California, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, and Georgia. More than a narrative about a single place in time, this radical primer for behavioral change belongs on every leader's shelf. Heartfelt, deeply personal, and inspiring, Trust First will break down your assumptions about whether anyone is ever truly a lost cause. Bruce will donate a portion of his proceeds from Trust First to the charitable organization City of Refuge.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525538178
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
If we choose to trust unconditionally, how many lives could we change? When Pastor Bruce Deel took over the Mission Church in the 30314 zip code of Atlanta, he had orders to shut it down. The church was old and decrepit, and its neighborhood--known as "Better Leave, You Effing Fool," or "the Bluff," for short--had the highest rates of crime, homelessness, and incarceration in Georgia. Expecting his time there to only last six months, Deel was not prepared for what happened next. One Sunday, he was approached by a woman he didn't know. "I've been hooking and stripping for fourteen years," she said. "Can you help me?" Soon after, Bruce founded an organization called City of Refuge rooted in the principle of radical trust. Other nonprofits might drug test before offering housing, lock up valuables, or veto a program giving job skills and character references to felons as "a liability." But Bruce believed the best way to improve outcomes for the marginalized and impoverished was to extend them trust, even if that trust was violated multiple times--and even if someone didn't yet trust themselves. Since then, City of Refuge has helped over 20,000 people in Atlanta's toughest neighborhood escape the cycles of homelessness, joblessness, and drug abuse. Of course, trust alone can't overcome a broken system that perpetuates inequality. Presenting an unvarnished window into the lives of ex-cons, drug addicts, human trafficking survivors, and displaced souls who have come through City of Refuge, Trust First examines the context in which Bruce's Atlanta neighborhood went downhill--and what City of Refuge chose to do about it. They've become a one-stop-shop for transitional housing, on-site medical and mental health care, childcare, and vocational training, including accredited intensives in auto tech, culinary arts, and coding. While most social services focus on one pain point and leave the burden on the poor to find the crosstown bus that'll serve their other needs, Bruce argues that bringing someone out of homelessness requires treating all of their needs simultaneously. This model has proven so effective that a dozen new chapters of City of Refuge have opened in the US, including in California, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, and Georgia. More than a narrative about a single place in time, this radical primer for behavioral change belongs on every leader's shelf. Heartfelt, deeply personal, and inspiring, Trust First will break down your assumptions about whether anyone is ever truly a lost cause. Bruce will donate a portion of his proceeds from Trust First to the charitable organization City of Refuge.
Accountability in Higher Education
Author: Bjorn Stensaker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136932364
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 331
Book Description
The latest volume in the Routledge International Studies in Higher Education series, Accountability in Higher Education takes an in-depth look at accountability initiatives around the world. Various evaluations, reporting schemes, and indicator systems have been initiated both to inform the public about higher education performance and to help transform universities and colleges and improve their functioning. This edited collection provides a comparative analysis of the promises, perils and paradoxes of accountability, and the potential effect on power structures and higher education autonomy, trust and the legitimacy of the sector. Part I describes how accountability is perceived and understood in different regions of the world, identifies some of the most common elements in established accountability initiatives, especially related to quality assurance, and provides direction for possible future development. Part II focuses on responses to new demands for accountability at institutional, national and international levels, and provides practical guidance for handling accountability going forward, emphasizing the dynamic relationship between international development, government strategies and organizational change. This volume is a must-have resource for HE managers, administrators, policy makers, researchers, HE graduate students and those interested or involved with HE accountability practices.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136932364
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 331
Book Description
The latest volume in the Routledge International Studies in Higher Education series, Accountability in Higher Education takes an in-depth look at accountability initiatives around the world. Various evaluations, reporting schemes, and indicator systems have been initiated both to inform the public about higher education performance and to help transform universities and colleges and improve their functioning. This edited collection provides a comparative analysis of the promises, perils and paradoxes of accountability, and the potential effect on power structures and higher education autonomy, trust and the legitimacy of the sector. Part I describes how accountability is perceived and understood in different regions of the world, identifies some of the most common elements in established accountability initiatives, especially related to quality assurance, and provides direction for possible future development. Part II focuses on responses to new demands for accountability at institutional, national and international levels, and provides practical guidance for handling accountability going forward, emphasizing the dynamic relationship between international development, government strategies and organizational change. This volume is a must-have resource for HE managers, administrators, policy makers, researchers, HE graduate students and those interested or involved with HE accountability practices.