The earliest painting by Rembrandt whose owner is documented depicts the prophet Balaam, on his way to blessing Israel. The man who bought it was a Sephardi Jew in the service of Cardinal Richelieu of France. The first known buyer of an etching plate by Rembrandt, depicting Abraham Dismissing Hagar and Ishmael, was a Sephardi Jew of Amsterdam. Seen through their eyes, Rembrandt was the creator of images with a special meaning to Jews. They have been followed through the centuries by Jewish c...

Our society has never been so internationally connected. Companies operate worldwide, retail shelves are filled with products from far and wide, people travel like never before and maintain contacts from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Distant countries have never been so close. Anyone who is practising law today cannot escape this and will increasingly be confronted with cross-border legal issues. Therefore, today’s jurists are expected to have knowledge of their own legal system as well as the l...

Capitalism has gone astray. Today we face ecological exhaustion, persistent inequality, financialization, stress on communities, short-termism, and new power concentrations.

An avalanche of new economic thinking and a reorientation of European values show the way toward a different economy. A new perspective is necessary if we want to implement the Sustainable Development Goals and if we consider our planet as ‘Our Common Home,’ for present and future generations.

This book argues that ...

How ‘green’ were people in late antiquity and the Middle Ages? Unlike today, the nature around them was approached with faith, trust and care. The population size was many times smaller than today and human impact on nature not as extreme as it is now. People did not have to worry about issues like deforestation and sustainability.

This book is about the knowledge of plants and where that knowledge came from. How did people use earth and plants in ancient times, and what did they know abo...

Institutions across the globe are increasingly questioned on how their foundations are rooted in colonialism and how they aim to ‘decolonize’. The Future of the Dutch Colonial Past provides an overview of critical scholarly reflections on the history of Dutch slavery and colonization, as well as how this translates into critical cultural practices. It also explores possible futures: What can heritage institutions learn from (international) best practices regarding the ‘decolonization’...

This Volume presents a first introduction to a thought-provoking Model of Motivation developed by Menno Mennes over a period of almost thirty years.

The Model of Motivation in its approach presents a radical departure from everything that has appeared so far in literature on the subject.

And yet, it provides a surprisingly detailed account of how motivation works, which appears to be supported by findings from theories and research from current literature. In an unparalleled analysis, the M...

In recent years, more and more organisations have realised that diversity and inclusion in the workplace is both crucial and enormously beneficial. But how do you stop this realisation from remaining empty words and flashy statements, and turn awareness into action?

In 'The Inclusion Marathon', Kauthar Bouchallikht and Zoë Papaikonomou interview 41 practitioners and researchers about their knowledge and experience within the field of diversity, equity and inclusion in the Netherlands. These...

Nowadays it seems there is a manual for everything. What if there was a manual for how to interact with people so that we could all function optimally and succeed in life?

This book comes closest to being the definitive manual for life. It is based on over 50 years of groundbreaking scientific research on self-determination theory which has produced a structural approach to social interaction—the ‘ABC of life’—as a concrete and actionable approach to success. For if you do not unders...

'The Platform Company' will help you tackle your organization's key strategic challenges with out-of-the box concepts based on solid principles from game theory and ecology. Building blocks are introduced in an easy-to-read story of an executive on safari and translated into practical steps and methods. The book addresses the key challenges confronting any organization, such as branding, sales channels, innovation, supply chain, strategy formation, leadership, and purpose.

In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Low Countries saw the rise of a lively market for practical and instructive books that targeted non-specialist readers. This study shows how woodcuts in vernacular books on medicine and astrology fulfilled important rhetorical functions in knowledge communication. These images guided readers’ perceptions of the organisation, visualisation, and reliability of knowledge. Andrea van Leerdam uncovers the assumptions and intentions of book producer...