bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Seizure Disorders
Authors: Tam Danny M. , Barr William B.
Published: May 2019

Epilepsy is a relatively prevalent neurological condition affecting individuals from all age groups. Although the condition is generally defined by the development of recurrent seizures, there is increasing recognition that disturbances in cognitive and behavioral functioning are also important features of the disorder with the potential of having an equivalent, if not greater, effect on quality of life than seizures. The diagnosis of epilepsy is generally based on electroencephalographic studies. The cognitive effects of epilepsy will vary according to the type of seizures and underlying epilepsy syndrome. Epilepsy is treated most successfully through pharmacologic management, although 30 percent of individuals will not respond to standard treatment. The approach to cognitive assessment will depend on the type of setting, with some test batteries designed to characterize functional strengths and weaknesses, whereas others are focused on providing localizing information and measures of baseline functioning prior to surgery. Behavioral treatments have been less successful for treatment of seizures than for comorbid conditions such as anxiety disorder or depression. Much less is known about the effects of cognitive remediation for treatment of cognitive disorders in patients with epilepsy. This chapter discusses some of the more common underlying pathological substrates and clinical features of epilepsy. The role of neuropsychology in assessing patients with epilepsy is reviewed, with particular consideration for different measurement tools and their contribution to diagnosis, localization/lateralization of seizure activity, and treatment planning. Finally, current controversies and emerging areas of study in the field of epilepsy research are highlighted.
Multiple Sclerosis
Authors: Sandroff Brian M. , DeLuca John
Published: May 2019

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a nontraumatic, immune-mediated and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. This chapter describes cognitive dysfunction in persons with MS. The chapter begins with a description of the disease and its prevalence and economic impact. This is followed by its diagnosis and current understanding of the mechanisms of the disease and its symptoms. The bulk of the chapter describes the cognitive impairments commonly observed in persons with MS. This includes the assessment of cognitive impairment, neuroimaging studies of how cognition is affected by brain pathology, the impact of cognitive impairment on daily life, and cognitive rehabilitation in MS. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion on future directions.
Traumatic Brain Injury
Authors: Cristofori Irene , Grafman Jordan
Published: May 2019

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an alteration in brain structure or function caused by external forces that result in vascular and axonal damage, edema, and neuronal cell death. This chapter examines the spectrum of TBI. TBI is a major cause of death and disability and, therefore, an important health and socioeconomic problem for societies. Individuals surviving a moderate to severe TBI frequently suffer from long-lasting cognitive deficits. Such deficits include different aspects of cognition, such as memory, attention, executive functions, social behavior, and awareness. Protective factors, well-detailed diagnostic criteria, and available pharmacological and behavioral treatments are described. Final considerations on current controversies, knowledge gaps, and future research targets are provided.
Concussion
Authors: Asken Breton M. , McCrea Michael A.
Published: May 2019

Concussions occur frequently among the general population, with athletes and certain military personnel being particularly vulnerable. Population differences (demographics, risk factors, injury frequency, injury severity, etc.) require that both clinicians and researchers carefully consider individual patient or participant characteristics. Recent evidence suggests that the physiological alterations associated with concussion may outlast the symptoms that manifest, although current concussion management is almost exclusively dictated by clinical presentation. Accordingly, there has been a rapid rise in research aiming to better characterize the neurophysiological effects of concussion and time course of neurobiological recovery after injury, particularly through employment of advanced neuroimaging metrics and fluid-based biomarkers. Concussion prevention efforts, particularly in athletic settings, range from limiting head impact exposure to mitigating recovery time (e.g., post-concussion syndrome) through identification of both neurobiological and psychosocial risk factors. Recommendations for extended periods of complete physical and cognitive rest after concussion have been replaced with guidelines for symptom-limited activity much earlier in the recovery process. Ultimately, improvements in both physiological and clinical injury identification, as well as concussion rehabilitation, may reduce the long-term impact of single-event or multiple concussions. The current literature on the relationship between concussion history and late-life risk for neurodegeneration or dementia is mixed. Several important topics related to the acute, subacute, and long-term outcomes of concussion require further study and clarification. Ongoing large-scale research initiatives hold the promise of accelerating access to essential, yet complex, answers.
Alzheimer’s Disease
Authors: Rentz Dorene M.  , Orlovsky Irina , Kilpatrick Emily , Papp Kathryn V.
Published: May 2019

Recent research has defined Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as a multidimensional process that moves along a continuum from a preclinical, asymptomatic phase in which the pathophysiology of AD begins many years prior to the emergence of the clinical dementia syndrome. This chapter discusses the preclinical phase of AD, in which biomarkers of the disease are emerging, as well as the symptoms associated with the subsequent progression to AD dementia. It addresses the epidemiology of AD and discusses the diagnostic criteria and the clinical evaluation, as well as the cognitive and behavioral changes associated with AD dementia. Current treatments and future directions are also discussed.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
Authors: Adams Jason W. , Mahar Ian , McKee Ann C.
Published: May 2019

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive, neurodegenerative tauopathy associated with exposure to repetitive head injury, including concussions and subconcussions. Clinical features of CTE consist of abnormalities in behavior, including explosivity, impulsivity, and suicidality; mood, including depressed mood and hopelessness; cognition, including executive dysfunction, memory loss, and dementia; and movement, including parkinsonism. Neuropathologically, there is often generalized cortical atrophy, which may be most severe in the frontal and temporal lobes; abnormalities of the septum pellucidum, such as cavum septum or fenestrations; enlargement of the lateral and third ventricles; atrophy of the diencephalon; and depigmentation of the substantia nigra and locus coeruleus. Microscopically, CTE is defined by the perivascular accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau (p-tau) in neurons and neuronal processes as neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and disordered neurites and in astrocytes, irregularly distributed in the cerebral cortex, with a predilection for the sulcal depths. In the mildest forms of CTE, a few perivascular CTE lesions are found in the cortex; in advanced CTE, p-tau NFTs and neurites are widely distributed in other cortical regions, often in the superficial layers of cortex, as well as the hypothalamus, thalamus, and brainstem. Most of the knowledge about CTE has been gained from the careful clinical characterization and comprehensive postmortem pathological analysis of brain donors. Although these studies have been essential to understanding the clinicopathological features of CTE and its molecular pathogenesis, current tissue-based research efforts have expanded to include developing in vivo biomarkers and diagnostics, characterizing risk factors, and developing methods to prevent and treat CTE.
Huntington Disease
Authors: Paulsen Jane S.
Published: May 2019

Huntington disease (HD) is a autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease caused by expansion of a trinucleotide repeat (cytosine, adenine, and guanine [CAG]) on the short arm of chromosome four. Average age of motor diagnosis is 39 years, and age at diagnosis is associated with the length of the CAG mutation. The prodrome of HD can be recognized 15 years prior to motor diagnosis and is characterized by subtle impairments in emotional recognition, smell identification, speed of processing, time estimation and production, and psychiatric abnormalities. HD shows particular vulnerability of the medium spiny neuron in the basal ganglia. Progressive brain dysfunction and neuron death lead to insidious loss of function in motor, cognitive, and behavioral control over 34 years (17 prodromal and 17 post-diagnosis). Treatment plans rely on genetic counseling, psychiatric symptom treatment as needed, physical therapy, and environmental modifications. There are two treatments for the reduction of chorea, but there are no disease-modifying therapies. Experimental therapeutics are rapidly emerging with multiple and various targets, however, and gene therapies to silence the mutant HD gene are currently ongoing. This chapter reviews clinical and neuropathological descriptions of HD and discusses potential underlying mechanisms and animal models, diagnostic and clinical assessments used to characterize and track the disease, treatment planning, and challenges for research to advance care.
Frontotemporal Dementia
Authors: Alioto Andrea G. , Mead Christie C. , Vanden Bussche Jantz Alicia B. , Staffaroni Adam M. , Kramer Joel H.
Published: May 2019

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a progressive neurological syndrome with diverse clinical presentations and underlying pathologies. FTD is a common cause of dementia, particularly among individuals younger than age 65 years. The three core FTD syndromes are behavioral variant FTD, semantic variant primary progressive aphasia, and nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia. Neuropsychiatric symptoms and language difficulties are common in FTD, but the heterogeneity of clinical presentations poses significant challenges that can impact accurate diagnosis and patient care. A comprehensive clinical assessment involving the evaluation of cognition, socioemotional functioning, neuroimaging, and other in vivo biomarkers assists with early diagnosis and treatment planning. As the understanding of genetic risk factors and the molecular basis for FTD improves, promising pharmacological therapies are being developed. This chapter summarizes the clinically relevant findings typically seen in each of the three FTD subtypes. It reviews the spectrum of underlying pathological and genetic substrates, addresses common diagnostic challenges, and summarize best practices associated with management of FTD.
Alcohol Dementia, Wernicke’s Encephalopathy, and Korsakoff’s Syndrome
Authors: Oscar-Berman, Marlene , Maleki Nasim
Published: May 2019

Chronic alcohol consumption has direct effects on the central nervous system and is among the leading causes of cognitive impairment and dementia. Alcohol-related dementia, Wernicke’s encephalopathy, and Korsakoff’s syndrome are among the most common forms of severe alcoholism-related neurological complications that are associated with widespread abnormalities in the brain, as well as impairments of multiple mental and emotional processes. Abnormalities have been consistently reported in association with Wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s syndrome, but alcohol-related dementia remains less well characterized. This chapter reviews the neurological and neuropsychological characteristics of these conditions, associated changes in the brain, potential molecular mechanisms involved, and some of the treatment or rehabilitation options. Future use of evidence-based diagnostic test-selection is advised to assist in refining differential diagnoses.
Overview of the Reserve Concept in the Context of Cognitive Aging
Authors: Sunderaraman Preeti , Stern Yaakov
Published: May 2019

The term reserve refers to a constellation of concepts to explain the rather perplexing finding that despite having similar levels of brain damage or pathology, two individuals may be completely different in terms of the clinical and functional impairment they experience and manifest. Although the concept of reserve was originally studied in the context of Alzheimer’s disease, throughout the years it has been applied to a broad range of neurological conditions, including epilepsy, stroke, traumatic and brain injuries, as well as other neurodegenerative conditions and psychiatric conditions. This chapter reviews the concepts of cognitive reserve, brain reserve, and brain maintenance. It reviews evidence supporting these concepts and also imaging data exploring their neural implementation. Finally, it explores their clinical ethical implications and discusses potential future directions.
Neuropsychological Evaluation
Authors: Hilsabeck Robin C. , Arredondo Beth C.
Published: May 2019

Neuropsychological evaluation is an integral part of clinical research in adults with neurocognitive disorders. Common reasons for neuropsychological evaluation in research are to identify or confirm diagnoses of individuals to be included in research studies; characterize neurocognitive, functional, and emotional/behavioral abilities; and measure the effectiveness of targeted interventions. A doctoral degree and specialized training in brain–behavior relationships are needed to conduct neuropsychological evaluations for diagnostic purposes and to interpret neuropsychological tests, whereas administration and scoring of neuropsychological tests can be performed by individuals with various educational and clinical backgrounds who are trained and supervised appropriately. The neurobehavioral interview is the primary means by which the evaluator gathers information necessary to understand the evaluee’s perspective and to place it within the context of medical, cognitive, emotional, and social information to form an impression. Neuropsychological tests are tools to confirm impressions from the neurobehavioral interview and/or characterize neurocognitive and functional abilities, as well as emotional/behavioral functioning. Neurocognitive screening measures, including computerized test batteries, are often used in clinical research to estimate global cognitive functioning and to serve as treatment outcome and safety measures, whereas comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is usually reserved for diagnostic evaluations. Characteristics of the patient population under study along with individual and environmental factors require careful thought when developing the neuropsychological test battery. Neurocognitive outcomes are of increasing interest to researchers across a variety of research domains and diagnostic entities, and clinical researchers are encouraged to stay abreast of the newest approaches to study adult neurocognitive disorders.
Applications of Neuropathological Examination in Adult Cognitive Disorders
Authors: Stei Thor D. , Alvarez Victor E. , Huber Bertrand R. 
Published: May 2019

Neuropathological examination is a key component in determining accurate diagnoses in both the postmortem and surgical settings. Postmortem analyses are necessary for clinicopathological correlation and for determination of frequent comorbid and subclinical pathologies, and neurosurgical specimens are increasingly important for molecular analysis and diagnosis of tumors, which inform treatment choices and prognosis. Neurodegenerative pathologies involve multiple and distinct brain regions, are age-dependent, and frequently co-occur. Well-developed staging systems have been developed for tau, β-amyloid, and Lewy pathologies and are used to establish threshold criteria for pathological diagnoses. The precise role of a given pathology on cognitive impairment will vary depending on pathological stage, comorbid pathology, and other factors such as cognitive reserve. A complete neuropathological workup for neurodegenerative disease requires the examination of multiple well-preserved regions with histochemical and immunohistochemical techniques optimized for paraffin embedded tissue. On the other hand, modern molecular techniques often require fresh or frozen tissue for accurate quantification of genetic and protein alterations. Overall, performing a complete neuropathological workup for accurate diagnoses and maintaining research quality tissue can be mutually beneficial and complementary processes.
Effects of Cardiovascular Disease and Related Risk Factors on Neurocognition
Authors: Liebel Spencer W. , Sweet Lawrence H.
Published: May 2019

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) affects approximately 44 million American adults older than age 60 years and remains the leading cause of death in the United States, with approximately 610,000 each year. With improved survival from acute cardiac events, older adults are often faced with the prospect of living with CVD, which causes significant psychological, social, and economic hardship. The various disease processes that constitute CVD also exert a deleterious effect on neurocognitive functioning. Although existing knowledge of neurocognitive functioning in CVD and its subtypes is substantial, a review of these findings by CVD type and neurocognitive domain does not exist, despite the potential impact of this information for patients, health care providers, and clinical researchers. This chapter provides a resource for clinicians and researchers on the epidemiology, mechanisms, and neurocognitive effects of CVDs. This chapter includes a discussion of neurocognitive consequences of CVD subtypes by neuropsychological domain and recommendations for assessment. Overall, the CVD subtypes that have the most findings available on specific neurocognitive domains are heart failure, hypertension, and atrial fibrillation. Despite a large discrepancy between the number of available studies across CVD subtypes, existing literature on neurocognitive effects by domain is consistent with the literature on the neurocognitive sequelae of unspecified CVD. Specifically, the research literature suggests that cognitive processing speed, attention, executive functioning, and memory are the domains most frequently affected. Given the prevalence of CVDs, neuropsychological assessment of older adults should include instruments that allow consideration of these potential neurocognitive consequences of CVD.
Pulmonary Disorders
Authors: Ruickbie Sachelle , Sharp Charles , Dodd James W.
Published: May 2019

The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 40 million people currently live with dementia and that this number will increase to 80 million during the next 20 year. It is therefore a global priority to identify any modifiable or treatable risk factors for the disease. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with a 5–10 percent annual conversion rate to dementia but is also considered a potentially reversible state. There is a maturing body of evidence indicating that impaired lung function and chronic lung disease are independent determinants of cognitive impairment in the elderly, including MCI, suggesting not just an association but also a possible causal relationship. People living with lung disease may well be at increased risk of cognitive dysfunction and brain pathology. Researchers face a number of complexities in studying this association. These might be usefully summarized in three ways: understanding the impact of shared etiology for both respiratory disease and cognitive impairment, understanding the relative contribution of factors more prevalent in both cognitive impairment and lung disease, and identifying effects specific to chronic lung disease. This chapter considers the evidence of cognitive dysfunction among the major pulmonary disorders and the relative contribution of shared and disease-specific factors. It also considers how recent advances in neuroimaging may provide insight into the mechanisms at play and therefore direct future therapeutic targets. Finally, it considers management strategies to reduce the risk of cognitive dysfunction in chronic lung disease and defines areas for future research.
Including Islam
Authors: Leder Stefan
Published: May 2019

Weber’s concept of Islam as a cultural configuration including religion, society, and political order was conceived against the backdrop of Europe’s supposed uniqueness and exemplary path to modernity. Yet his ambition of advancing transcultural understanding and exploring a plurality of developmental histories offers inspiration to this day also for the Islamic perspective. Repositioning his ideas about warrior Islam, Islamic beliefs, Islamic law, and patrimonialism in the context of contemporary postcolonial, postmodern, and global theory reveals details, correlations, and perspectives that Weber at the time ignored or omitted. Complementing theory with up-to-date historical research on the Middle East provides further corrections. A critical appraisal of Weber’s approach and the discussions it triggered allows recognition of the dynamics of Islamic history, such as the role of religion and religious authority in the evolution of state–society relations. It also assists in understanding Islamic features of modernity, including fundamentalism and the role of tradition, that inform the tension between moral values and politics. Going beyond the historical limitation of Weber’s assessment of prevalent features of Islam, the vitality of Islamic tradition and its particular pathway to modernity are recognizable in terms corresponding with the intention of Weber’s transcultural approach and its contemporary reinterpretations.
Money, Credit, and Finance in Capitalism
Authors: Ingham Geoffrey
Published: May 2019

The analysis of money was impaired by the disciplinary separation of economics and sociology following the Methodenstreit. Sociology abnegated responsibility for its study to economics, which treated it as a relatively unimportant “neutral veil” over the operation of the “real” economy. Weber worked to overcome the disciplinary balkanization, but ironically this has led to a neglect of his contributions to the analysis of money’s role in capitalism. For example, The Religion of China opens with an account of the underdeveloped monetary system and its inhibitory impact on the development of capitalism. Money is an essential element in the instrumental rationality in modern Western capitalism’s vast impersonal markets and rational capital accounting of profitability in the enterprise. Money prices which enable rational calculation can only be established when money is a “weapon in the struggle for economic existence” and not merely a “neutral” economic medium of exchange. Consequently, administered prices in command and socialist economies inhibit rationality and efficiency.
Alcohol Dependence Conceptualized as a Stress Disorder
Authors: Vendruscolo Leandro F. , Koob George F.
Published: May 2019

Alcohol use disorder is a chronically relapsing disorder that involves (1) compulsivity to seek and take alcohol, (2) difficulty in limiting alcohol intake, and (3) emergence of a negative emotional state (e.g., dysphoria, anxiety, irritability) in the absence of alcohol. Alcohol addiction encompasses a three-stage cycle that becomes more intense as alcohol use progresses: binge/intoxication, withdrawal/negative affect, and preoccupation/anticipation. These stages engage neuroadaptations in brain circuits that involve the basal ganglia (reward hypofunction), extended amygdala (stress sensitization), and prefrontal cortex (executive function disorder). This chapter discusses key neuroadaptations in the hypothalamic and extrahypothalamic stress systems and the critical role of glucocorticoid receptors. These neuroadaptations contribute to negative emotional states that powerfully drive compulsive alcohol drinking and seeking. These changes in association with a disruption of prefrontal cortex function that lead to cognitive deficits and poor decision making contribute to the chronic relapsing nature of alcohol dependence.
Children’s Right to Privacy
Authors: Blecher-Prigat Ayelet
Published: May 2019

This chapter examines how (if at all) children’s right to privacy is concretely implemented in the legal realm. It considers children’s privacy when they are involved in legal proceedings, children’s privacy in schools, children’s online privacy, children’s involvement with media publicity, and children’s right to confidential medical advice and treatment. It also considers children’s privacy in their relationship with their parents, focusing on parents’ surveillance and monitoring of their children and parents’ use of social media in a manner that involves their children. Existing legal policies and rules across these contexts fail to carve out a space where children can be free from constant adult gaze and supervision. This chapter argues that there is insufficient research about children’s needs and interests in privacy, and where research does exist lawmakers fail to take notice of its findings; privacy theories are mainly adult-centered and cannot adequately be applied to children; and family law conceptions still focus on parental authority, and around the idea of “the family” as a unit.
Relational Parents
Authors: Wilson Robin Fretwell
Published: May 2019

Significant changes in family forms and dynamics (such as increases in nonmarital cohabitation, children cared for by extended family, and same-sex couples with children) have prompted policymakers to rethink the question of who is a legal parent. Specifically, the law is grappling with which adults will be granted parental status or rights based on their relationship with a child’s parent and why. This chapter reviews the mounting number of doctrinal hooks used by courts, legislatures, and law reformers for deciding when adults can make claims in children. It examines traditional parentage and family privacy doctrines, reviews justifications for a dramatic widening of the parental tent, and then turns to a set of fairness and child-welfare concerns raised by these concepts, highlighting four major worries. It argues that costs of considering the parentage claims of relational parents—both to the legal parent and to the child—have received inadequate weight to date.
Gender, Justice, and Youth Development
Authors: Sherman Francine T.
Published: May 2019

From the time the first US training school for girls was opened in 1856 to today, girls have been over-represented in the juvenile justice system for behaviors that stem from trauma, and the justice system has been used to promote a narrow and typical view of female gender-conforming behavior. This chapter examines the pathways girls and LGBTQ youth take into and through the juvenile justice system to show disparate impact on black girls, girls with child-welfare histories, girls who experience violence in their homes, girls with mental and behavioral health issues, and girls and LGBTQ youth who are victims of sex trafficking. In all these categories, best practices would reduce juvenile and criminal justice system involvement in favor of community-based, positive developmental solutions. Some of those more promising and evidence-based solutions are provided at the conclusion of the chapter.
Screening Potential Parents
Authors: Dwyer James G.
Published: May 2019

The state scrutinizes potential parents with some rigor in the context of adoption, and with good reason. There is no justification for not doing so as well in choosing a newborn child’s first legal parents. This chapter describes nascent efforts to identify unfit biological parents at the time of birth, before they assume custody and subject a child to maltreatment—specifically, toxicology testing of newborns and examination of birth parents’ child-maltreatment history. The chapter then provides a theoretical normative argument for further developing such efforts. It analogizes state creation of legal parent-child relationships to state creation of legal family relationships between adults (i.e., marriage). It explains that parentage law can and should imitate marriage law in one crucial respect—namely, requiring a mutuality of consent between the two parties, with the state serving as an agent for the child in consenting to (or rejecting) a family relationship with particular adults based on its best judgment as to whether forming a legal family with those adults is in the child’s best interests all things considered.
School District Boundaries
Authors: Frankenberg Erica , Siegel-Hawley Genevieve , Diem Sarah
Published: May 2019

This chapter focuses on district boundary lines, social science evidence, and litigation to consider how they shape student enrollment and segregation. Social science clearly shows that district boundaries continue to hamper school integration by race and income, perhaps more so now than in the past. When it comes to the courts, some decisions have recognized the damaging impact of school-related boundaries when it comes to school desegregation. Others have not. Over the past few decades, the ambiguity of the law has helped create differing boundary line arrangements across the country. The chapter reviews three different areas to understand the legal and political significance of boundaries. St. Louis, Missouri, shows us that interdistrict desegregation plans where district boundaries remain intact face uphill battles, with implications for state court cases in the highly fragmented Northeast. In Alabama, recent federal law suggests that the courts may be returning to their earlier understanding of how district boundaries work. In Tennessee, though, federal courts permitted a damaging proliferation of boundary lines. These cases illustrate what social science tells us about district boundaries—that they give shape to segregation. They show that boundary lines are not immutable and that the way they shift matters a great deal in shaping access to opportunity for students, particularly for black, Latino, and low-income students. Ultimately, the chapter argues that a renewed judicial and political understanding of the segregating impact of district boundaries is imperative and offer recommendations for how to mitigate their impact.
Introduction
Authors: Bronner Simon J.
Published: May 2019

Introducing the contents of The Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklife Studies, this essay first reviews major English-language handbooks for the study of folklore and folklife since the late nineteenth century. It finds that the handbooks produced for the United States claimed special conditions in the country such as the diversity and mobility of its population that necessitated distinctive approaches to the subject. The study of American folklore and folklife studies embraced the study of contemporary culture and nonpeasant groups. Second, the essay reviews various definitions of folklore and folklife produced by American folklorists and the spread of process-oriented perspectives initially in performance and later in practice-oriented definitions. A background for definitional debates is the tension between advocates for conceptualizations of folklore as verbal art or communication and folklife as an ethnological or sociological subject and efforts in the twenty-first century to integrate the two. Toward this end, the essay closes with a general outline of folkloristic inquiry: (1) establishment of a problem statement or thesis, (2) the identification and annotation of folk material and processes in depth, (3) engagement of analysis and proposal of explanation, and (4) formation of implications and applications. Although authors in the handbook discuss methods specific to their fields, the introduction contends that the outline consistently is used. Common characteristics of folklore and folklife studies are identified, including attention to traditional knowledge; variable, repeated cultural practices; and everyday life.
Folklore and Folklife of European Americans
Authors: Buccitelli Anthony Bak , Hutcheson Cory Thomas
Published: May 2019

This article covers the traditional practices of groups who trace their heritage to Europe. It includes a historical overview of immigration from Europe to the United States, as well as consideration of how European national, regional, and local traditions were reproduced, adapted, or recreated in different parts of the United States. It gives an overview of contemporary ethnic traditions as they have been studied across the country. Consideration is given to groups such as Italian, Irish, Polish, and German Americans, who have typically been studied as part of the core of European ethnic cultures in the United States. But at the same time, the essay poses questions of how European folk traditions were maintained and adapted by groups not often placed as “European American” ethnics. These include Latinx peoples, British Americans, and African Americans. In doing so, this article will underline the fluidity of ethnic boundaries, a fluidity that is mirrored in the traditions of folklore and folklife.
Internet and Media in American Folklore and Folklife
Authors: Puglia David J.
Published: May 2019

The media of print, radio, film, television, and especially the Internet are subjects as well as sources of folklore and folklife. Following the rise of the Internet in the late twentieth century, and its proliferation in the early twenty-first century, bringing with it Web 2.0 and the performative folk web, folklorists increasingly turned to the Internet to research folk processes and compare them to the kinds of transmission in face-to-face communities. Digital folklore—with “memes” being most recognizable—flourishes online, and the Internet creates new traditional forms and practices. The Internet challenges long-standing assumptions, definitions, methods, and theories in what has been called the predigital or analog era. Folklore and folklife research of media and digital technology contributes to the broader field of communication and media studies by emphasizing the continued importance of informal culture and group aesthetics in technologically mediated environments.
Methods and Tools of American Folklore and Folklife Studies
Authors: Buccitelli Anthony Bak
Published: May 2019

This article provides an overview of the analytical and fieldwork methodologies that are employed in the study of American folklore and folklife. It considers the history of method in folkloristics, as well as the historical tension between textual and ethnographic methods. It describes contemporary methods and tools, as they have taken shape since the discipline’s last major reorientation in the 1970s. The discussion of methodology includes different forms of ethnography, field collection, repertoire collecting, and analysis. Tools considered include indexes and archives, audio and video recording, photography, field notes, drawing and measurements, and mapping. Finally, the article covers emerging and potential methods and tools. This section gives particular attention to the integration of digital technologies into folkloristic research. It discusses ways that folklorists are working in digital settings, using powerful digital tools for data collection and analysis of both digital and nondigital folklore, and methods for collaborative work with participants. Informed by practice theory, this article makes the case that the study of aggregated performances and everyday practices of folklore is not only easier with the advent of digital tools, but it could also represent an important new way of linking the concerns for situational meaning-making of performance studies to practice-oriented scholars’ concerns with social structure.
Regions, Borders, and Nation in American Folklore and Folklife
Authors: Bronner Simon J.
Published: May 2019

The study of regions and borders in American folklore and folklife is essentially about the cultural significance of place and land. It has been of political interest more widely because of the implication of the way that national feeling developed after the establishment of a New Republic in the nineteenth century despite sectional division born out of cultural differences. It has been of folkloristic significance because of region as an important marker of cultural identity, in some places more than others. Along both these lines, folklorists have asked about the relative stability of regional cultures in the United States and the use of regional folklore as an expression of social belonging in relation to others, including race, ethnicity, occupation, family, and religion. Objective and subjective approaches to investigating these issues are presented. For the former, historical-geographical surveys of folk items that demonstrate diffusion and hybridization are covered, and for the latter, rhetorical criticism of narrative and visual expressions and frame or situational analysis of cultural scenes are discussed. The essay introduces the concept of regional “homelands” in a mobile society such as the United States—social constructions that are often imagined in folklife rather than in the reality of a cultural landscape. Addressing the view that place and region carry less cultural meaning with the advent of the digital era of the twenty-first century, the essay closes with research trajectories for assessing the continued need for “sense of place” in a modern context of heightened mobility, globalization, and digital communication.
Race, Phenotype, and Nationality in Brazil and the United States
Authors: Joseph Tiffany D.
Published: May 2019

In recent decades, there have been substantial developments in the sociologies of the body and race. However, race has been understudied in sociology of the body at the same time that the sociology of race has not often explored the influence of phenotypical differences on individuals’ experiences and outcomes. Using ethnographic data from interviews with seventy-three Brazilians in Governador Valadares, this chapter illustrates how race and phenotype shape perceptions of Brazilian and American nationality and discrimination in Brazil and the United States. In so doing, the findings show that researchers cannot assess race in each context without incorporating the body. Thus, more theoretical leverage can be gained in each subfield by merging both literatures to better understand the crucial role that the body and race play in racialized societies.
Beyond Infotainment
Authors: Baym Geoffrey , Holbert R. Lance
Published: May 2019

Infotainment is a generally pejorative term used to indicate a broad range of normative concerns surrounding the generation, dissemination, and consumption of political information packaged in entertaining formats. This chapter argues that the term infotainment has outlasted its usefulness as a theoretical concept and details a notion of hybrid political-entertainment media as a more useful approach to conceptualize a core mode of political campaigning, persuasion, and influence within a rapidly transforming media environment. The chapter then offers a typology detailing three primary modes of hybrid media—TV chat, political satire, and partisan punditry—and explores extant scholarship on persuasive effects, public awareness influence, and macro-social cultural shifts associated with various popular political-entertainment forms.
Horse-Race and Game-Framed Journalism’s Effects on Turnout, Vote Choice, and Attitudes toward Politics
Authors: Toff Benjamin
Published: May 2019

This chapter presents an overview of research on horse-race journalism and its various wide-ranging effects. The impact of polls on political processes remains poorly understood and relatively understudied in political communication in part due to limited agreement on the nature of the relevant terms and theories. The first part of the chapter examines definitions of horse-race journalism and related concepts such as game-framing and public opinion journalism. It goes on to discuss research concerning the ostensible electoral impacts of such reporting on turnout and vote choice and then examines related work on the effects of horse-race journalism on other forms of political participation and attitudes about politics. The chapter concludes with a series of recommendations for future research in this area.
Endogenous and Exogenous Election Timing
Authors: Schleiter Petra
Published: May 2019

This chapter examines the rules that govern election timing in democracies. It begins by distinguishing between constitutionally fixed (exogenous) and constitutionally flexible (endogenous) election timing, reviews which political actors can call early elections when endogenous election timing is permitted, and notes that early elections are heterogeneous and can be of two distinct types—either triggered by government failure or called for partisan advantage. Next, the chapter summarizes the current understanding of the consequences of election timing rules for four important political outcomes: gridlock resolution, the electoral performance of incumbents, the bargaining power of various political actors in negotiating governments and policy, and the rhythm of policy cycles. Together the findings reviewed in this chapter show that election timing rules are highly consequential: they shape election outcomes, accountability, and policy, with significant implications for governance and voter welfare.
Political Budget Cycles
Authors: Veiga Linda Gonçalves , Efthyvoulou Georgios , Morozumi Atsuyoshi
Published: May 2019

This chapter reviews the literature on political budget cycles (PBCs), focusing on studies that analyze the conditionality of opportunistic effects. First, factors that affect incentives of politicians to embark on pre-electoral policy manipulations are highlighted, and then factors that influence the capability of those manipulations to generate additional votes are discussed. Finally, the effects of personal characteristics of leaders on PBCs are explored. To complement the review, an empirical investigation of electoral effects on central governments’ deficit, expenditure, and revenue series, under various political arrangements, is implemented on a large panel covering seventy-eight countries and forty-two years of data (1975–2016). Empirical results confirm that PBCs are more likely to occur under certain politico-institutional circumstances, including predetermined elections, disputed elections, majoritarian electoral rules, larger private benefits from holding office, weak constraints on executives, a high proportion of uninformed voters, and new democracies.
Race, Scriptures, and the Postcolonial World
Authors: Wimbush Vincent L.
Published: May 2019

This chapter is a brief discussion on the fraught categories “the postcolonial” (world), “the Bible,” and “race.” It considers how they are complexly interrelated and how each sets conditions for the others. The chapter also examines how these categories invent, define, and delimit one another and thereby shape thinking, discourse, and politics. The categories highlighted in this essay are not inert, flat backdrops or contexts against which one then engages texts; they are themselves complex phenomena and dynamic “texts” to be interpreted. The challenge ahead has to do with how the imbrication of the intertextual dynamics will be perceived. Thus, this article is an attempt to demonstrate a defensible way forward that entails exploding rather sinking into traditional notions about the textual. Put more simply, it entails focus on lives, social relations, and power dynamics.
International Arbitration as a Tool of Global Governance
Authors: Nappert Sophie
Published: May 2019

It has been posited that the international arbitration process carries with it not only fact-finding and lawmaking functions but also a governance function insofar as “arbitrators … can and do engage in autonomous normative action while still adhering to the rule of law.” This contribution explores the role and ambit of the exercise of discretion by international arbitration tribunals and its interplay with the tribunals’ governance function, as arbitrators must consider “the impact of their rulings on states, persons or entities not directly represented in the case before them.” It questions whether the use of discretion is suited to the governance role of arbitral tribunals and serves, rather than compromises, the effective exercise of that role. It asks what measures ought to be considered to make arbitrators better prepared for the exercise of their governance function.
The Governance of International Spaces and Earth Systems
Authors: Young Oran R.
Published: May 2019

The absence of a government in the ordinary sense coupled with a low level of social solidarity poses serious obstacles for solving a variety of collective action problems in international society. Nowhere is this more apparent than in dealing with needs for governance relating to international spaces and Earth systems. Nevertheless, some efforts to develop regimes to deal with these needs do succeed. Drawing on examples relating to biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, maritime commerce, climate change, and the depletion of stratospheric ozone, this chapter examines processes of regime formation and implementation, interactions among issue-specific regimes, and the evolution of regimes over time to identify conditions that determine success and failure in the development of governance systems for international spaces and Earth systems.
Self-Regulation and Self-Censorship
Authors: Kořínek Pavel
Published: May 2019

Building on several examples from Czechoslovak comics of the twentieth century, this chapter aims to point out various ways in which censorship and self-censoring practices influenced the local variant of comics production on the formative level. During the period in question (1948–1989), there were no explicitly formulated and/or written rules delineating what was allowed and what was not, and the uncertain notion of “acceptability” (in connection with totalitarian ideological authorities and political institutions) was merely a construct of shared awareness of comics creators. To be able to publish comics without persecution, they came out with various self-defensive strategies both at the form-related and at the content-related level. At the end of the chapter, some of these strategies are outlined, and a short discussion of their transnational, region-wide occurrence is included.
In Box
Authors: Kwa Shiamin
Published: May 2019

This chapter explores the critical value of learning to read the graphic narrative through the device of the speech bubble, the comics convention borrowed in the visual system of the text message. Active reading of text-image hybrids, always a part of our lives, is now especially crucial in a society saturated with word-text communication systems that frequently substitute for face-to-face encounters. Focusing on the comics of Emile Holmewood, or BloodBros, this chapter analyzes his short comic, “Speech Bubble,” which situates the text-messaging speech bubble against the comics-language speech bubble. The interplay of these bubbles and the way they expose our assumptions about reading and making meaning emphasize how the act of reading is an ethical process.