This chapter describes the way capitalism, while posing as simply an economic process, captures the political will, commandeering the state and colonizing the subject to its regime of accumulation so as to eliminate politics and secure its dystopic order.

Justice is central to Islamic ideology, rooted in divine principles and reflected in the structure of the universe. Economic and social justice, according to Islam, are inseparable from faith and must permeate every aspect of life – not just worship. The Qur’an and hadith stress individual and communal responsibility, condemning inequality, exploitation and negligence toward the disadvantaged. Justice is not only a moral value but a spiritual obligation, tied to one’s belief in God and accountability on the Day of Judgment.

Islam assigns collective responsibility to ensure that no one suffers from poverty or injustice. Wealth is viewed as a trust, not private property to be hoarded. Tools like charity (zakat), the prohibition of interest (riba) and profit-sharing (mudaraba) aim to prevent economic exploitation and promote fairness. Contemporary Muslim societies often fail to apply these principles, leading to increasing inequality, alienation and disconnection from faith-based justice.

Musa Sadr calls for scholars and governments to prioritize justice, support the oppressed, reform economic laws and reintegrate justice into educational and legal systems. True Islamic justice demands not charity, but systemic support – interest-free loans, rights for workers and equitable development. Without this, the community is at risk of moral and social disintegration.

Islam views labor as the most critical factor in production, alongside capital and machinery. It highlights ethical considerations in distributing production benefits fairly among these factors, strongly opposing exploitation inherent in capitalist systems, which prioritize profits over workers’ rights. Islam forbids interest/usury (riba) – profit from capital without labor – as unjust, emphasizing that wealth must arise through actual work and effort.

Islam distinguishes between capital, machinery and labor, each having different rights. Machinery should not receive profits but rather fixed monetary compensation. Capital owners cannot claim fixed interest as it is deemed exploitative; instead, their gains must come as profit-sharing, subjecting them also to losses. Laborers have privileged rights: workers can earn fixed wages, share profits and remain shielded from business losses.

Islamic principles ensure economic fairness, giving prominence to laborers’ welfare. Labor can either be rented (fixed wage) or engaged in profit-sharing partnerships (mudaraba), where capital bears the risk. Islamic economic ethics provide clear guidelines for fair distribution, recognizing labor’s essential contribution, limiting capital exploitation and assigning machinery as supportive but non-profiting components. The overarching aim is a balanced, ethically driven economy safeguarding human dignity and social justice.

Asylums’ adoption of printing and periodical publishing from the late 1830s was related to two major developments on both sides of the Atlantic: the growing accessibility of print and printing presses and the spread of the moral treatment of insanity. As the periodical press permeated daily life, and printing equipment became cheaper and easier to use, the introduction of presses into asylums was a practical move. The presses served multiple purposes: recreational, therapeutic, as well as administrative. This chapter identifies various factors that contributed to the introduction of printing in asylums and addresses concerns about the exploitation of patients’ labour hidden behind the theory of moral therapeutics. It also reflects on the symbolic meaning of the press, its association with civilizational progress, and the influence of such ideas on the early adoption of periodical publishing in America and Scotland. While presses were almost never bought solely for patients’ benefits, they offered novel opportunities for inmates to exercise initiative and agency as partners in the development of early psychiatry, as well as civilization.

Fairness norms operate in virtually every area of social endeavor. There are several common behavioral responses to exchanges between social actors. Exploitation and retaliation, both of which are threats to fairness, are closely associated with narcissism. Other behavioral responses include cooperation, reciprocity, acquiescence, withdrawal, and altruism. Social movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo are collective responses to profound unfairness.

Of the crimes making contemporary news, mass shootings occur too frequently and result in a tremendous loss of life. Many represent offenders attempting to get even with immigrants, minorities, and others they think have hurt mainstream American culture. Sex offenders include trusted adults such as scout leaders, physicians, and politicians who victimize children, patients, and employees. Some offenders are highly educated and behave as though they are entitled to violate norms and laws. These contemporary offenses involve either exploitation or retaliation in response to a grievance. Both these behavioral responses are associated with the personality style known as narcissism.

This chapter explores strategy as a key driver of organizational design, emphasizing that structure should align with strategic intent. It introduces four strategic archetypes: reactors (no clear strategy), defenders (efficiency-focused), prospectors (innovation-driven), and analyzers (balancing both). It also discusses digital business strategy, showing how AI and digitalization reshape decision-making, operations, and innovation. Sustainable strategy is introduced, integrating economic, environmental, and social goals (People, Planet, Profit) to enhance resilience and competitiveness. The chapter concludes with strategy misfits – misalignments between strategy and goals – and the need to adjust one or the other. It ends by addressing how the environment influences strategic choices.

Chapter 3 looks at the different objectives that have been proposed as the basic rationale for competition law. The chapter starts with a discussion of the consumer welfare and total welfare standard and their pros and cons. This is followed by a discussion of the ‘protection of the competitive process’ standard and a range of other, less familiar, objectives. All of these claimed goals have their drawbacks, which are carefully assessed.

On 9 September 1976, Mao passed away, marking the end of the radical socialist experiment and the beginning of marketized reforms. In the face of growing social grievances sparked by marketized reforms, in the early 2000s the Hu Jintao administration (2002–2012) changed gear toward social protection. This chapter outlines the regime of general labour precarity in the post-Mao era: socialist surplus appropriation has been overhauled and given way to exploitation; the social exclusion system has been softened and recalibrated; despite efforts of decommodification, the recommodification of healthcare, education, and housing has created the ‘three new great mountains’ over Chinese people.

Is solidarity possible in societies characterized by the exchange of data, under conditions of digitalization and AI? If not, why not? To answer these questions, I inquire into the emergence of solidarity in two historical cases. The first maps German coal and steel workers’ resistance to exploitation during the industrial revolution in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The second case explores resistance and community formation by the Maroon, a group of fugitive plantation slaves in eighteenth-century Suriname. I analyse these cases with the help of four heuristic elements: (1) communal living of labourers entailed by the industrialization of a new technology (steam powered industry and slavery-powered plantation agriculture), (2) under-regulation of ensuing labour relations, (3) the emergence of resistant proto-law amongst labourers and (4) the response of repressive-appeasing law by owners and the state. I extract two necessary attributes of solidarity: the sharing of a physical place by labourers forming a community in solidarity, and the location of that place on the inside of a politics of exploitation. I conclude that cybernetics, digitalization and AI undercut the preconditions for solidarity, as they eradicate the sharing of a physical place on the inside of exploitation politics.