bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
RabGEFs are a major determinant for specific Rab membrane targeting
Authors: Blümer Julia , Rey Juliana , Dehmelt Leif , Mazel Tomáš , Wu Yao-Wen , Bastiaens Philippe , Goody Roger S. , Itzen Aymelt
Published: February 2013

Eukaryotic cells critically depend on the correct regulation of intracellular vesicular trafficking to transport biological material. The Rab subfamily of small guanosine triphosphatases controls these processes by acting as a molecular on/off switch. To fulfill their function, active Rab proteins need to localize to intracellular membranes via posttranslationally attached geranylgeranyl lipids. Each member of the manifold Rab family localizes specifically to a distinct membrane, but it is unclear how this specific membrane recruitment is achieved. Here, we demonstrate that Rab-activating guanosine diphosphate/guanosine triphosphate exchange factors (GEFs) display the minimal targeting machinery for recruiting Rabs from the cytosol to the correct membrane using the Rab-GEF pairs Rab5A–Rabex-5, Rab1A-DrrA, and Rab8-Rabin8 as model systems. Specific mistargeting of Rabex-5/DrrA/Rabin8 to mitochondria led to catalytic recruitment of Rab5A/Rab1A/Rab8A in a time-dependent manner that required the catalytic activity of the GEF. Therefore, RabGEFs are major determinants for specific Rab membrane targeting.
Studying the State
Authors: Scheidel Walter
Published: February 2013

This chapter discusses the concept and various definitions of state. These include Max Weber's definition of the state as a specific type of political organization and his emphasis on regulation and coercion anchored in a distinct and differentiated organization, and John Haldon's opinion that a state is a set of institutions and personnel exerting authority over a territorially distinct area. The chapter argues that while existing theories variously privilege resource stress, state structure, and state size, actual outcomes are often seen as mediated by exogenous factors such as competitors and environmental factors.
Egypt
Authors: Manning Joseph G.
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the history of, and the important factors that contributed to, state formation in ancient Egypt during the period from around 3500 BCE to the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty in 30 BCE. It explains that there are four major cycles of centralization and three cycles of crisis in Egyptian history, and that the account of both are often exaggerated. The chapter also discusses the three main trends in the understanding of the Egyptian state and the different models of state of formation.
Jewish States
Authors: Schwartz Seth
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the history of the formation of Jewish states, discussing the geography and phenomenology of the Jewish states, and the relation between ethnos and state. It highlights the incomplete consolidation of Judaism as the normative ideology of the Jews in the Achaemenid and Hellenistic periods, describes the Hasmonean state under Herod, and identifies the factors that contributed to state formation.
Bronze Age Greece
Authors: Bennet John
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the history of state formation in ancient Greece during the Bronze Age, providing an overview of the nature of the Minoan states and the extent of control exercised by Mycenaean states. It describes the key features of the states in the Mycenaean period, which include state structure and organization, palatial centers, military organization, economic organization and administration, and systems of communication and representation.
The Roman Empire IIThe Monarchy
Authors: Bang Peter Fibiger
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the transformation of the Roman Empire from a republican to a monarchy system of government, explaining that the republican system was replaced because its political institutions were too small to manage the growing social power brought about by military expansionism. It discusses how the first emperor Augustus consolidated his monarchy by creating an institutional infrastructure that sought to regularize the retirement of the soldiery, and also considers the source of stability of the monarchy and the emergence of empire-wide aristocracy.
The Byzantine Successor State
Authors: Haldon John F.
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the history of state formation in the Byzantine Empire, or the eastern Roman Empire, during the fourth century to the fifteenth century CE. It explains that the Byzantine successor state evolved out of Roman institutional arrangements structured as a hierarchy of administrative levels and that it was a complex bureaucracy which required a substantial degree of more-than-minimal clerical literacy for its day-to-day administration. The chapter also chronicles the growth of the town-based landlord elite or gentry that was associated with the economic expansion and growth of the period, and which had critical implications for state control over the distribution of resources.
The First Islamic Empire
Authors: Robinson Chase F.
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the history of the establishment of the first Islamic Empire. It explains that the Arab Muslims took control of a culturally and religiously heterogeneous and geographically diverse area of Eurasia, from Iberia and North Africa in the west to Transoxiana and Sind in the east. The chapter highlights the role of religion in the formation of the Islamic state given that most Muslims believed that the conquests which preceded it were part of God's providential direction of human affairs. It discusses the achievements of the Islamic Empire and its successful experiment with pre-modern Mediterranean and Near Eastern imperialism.
Greece
Authors: Millett Paul C.
Published: February 2013

This chapter assesses the Greek writing on the subject of warfare. The plausibility of Demosthenes' presentation of Philip's waging of war is also addressed. The issues of orality and performance had directly impacted almost all Greek authors concerned with warfare. The story of archaic poetry had indicated a spectrum of military engagement. It is noted that prosecutions arising out of military offences and death in battle have a relatively high profile in the Orators, and that warfare naturally has a major role in the process of growth and decline. The fullest reflection of Thucydides on the implications of war had combined material with psychological considerations. Xenophon's experience with the Athenian cavalry had been directly reflected in his Hipparchios or “The Duties of a Cavalry Commander,” and in Peri hippikes or “On Horsemanship.”
The Archaeology of War
Authors: James Simon
Published: February 2013

This chapter concentrates on the contribution of archaeology to understanding aspects of ancient warfare, archaeological methodology, and its achievements and problems in the context of explaining how men fought and armies were organized in the ancient world. A central aspect of archaeological evidence—arms and armor—is dealt with. Roman Europe has acquired the most extensive and intensively explored archaeological data for ancient campaigns, conquests, and military occupation. The data may sometimes build year-by-year campaign maps, but most often they demonstrate the shape of conflicts, conquests, and military occupations. Roman martial culture, and especially the archaeology of arms and dress, reveals how intimately associated Roman soldiers were with the peoples against whom they fought. Moreover, it is noted that archaeology is important for evaluating the martial culture of the antagonists of Greco-Roman societies.
The Classical Greek Experience
Authors: Lee John W. I.
Published: February 2013

This chapter introduces the diverse troops, equipment, formations, and tactics that characterized the period from about 500–350 BC, exploring non-Greek as well as Greek military forces. Moreover, the battle mechanics and the experience of battle are analyzed. The chapter then suggests some possible fruitful directions for future research. Most Greek cavalry was been lightly armed and preferred to fight from a distance using javelins or bows. The victories of Greek hoplites in the Persian Wars resulted in massed heavy infantry combat and the exclusion of non-hoplites from the phalanx. Greek commanders exercised combined arms battles during and after the Peloponnesian War. The study of classical battles might greatly profit from archaeological reconstruction of arms and armor, and from practical experiments performed under controlled scholarly conditions.
The Hellenistic World at War
Authors: Serrati John
Published: February 2013

This chapter describes the effects of warfare in the Hellenistic period, which influenced nearly every aspect of life for people living in the Greek East at the time. The phalanx remained the basic unit of the Hellenistic army. The Hellenistic world saw a proliferation of technical manuals concerning the art of war. The composition of armies included infantry, cavalry, auxiliary forces, siege warfare, and navies. The Macedonian cavalry was the main striking arm of the combined force. Cavalry in the Hellenistic world were organized largely as in Alexander's day. Hellenistic siege warfare featured its share of exotic weapons. It is shown that the sea became a venue for battle. There was a marked shift in the composition of both navies and armies during the Hellenistic period.
War at Sea
Authors: de Souza Philip
Published: February 2013

This chapter presents a description of ancient naval warfare. Ship-to-ship combat was neither the primary purpose of ancient war fleets, nor the typical manifestation of ancient naval warfare. The Greeks had built ships that were planned for raiding or warfare by the end of the eighth century BC. Naval powers developed sophisticated ship-to-ship combat tactics that made the most of their vessels, their sailing skills, and their fighting men. The men who rowed ancient warships were expected to participate in fighting on land as light-armed troops, engaging in raids and skirmishes, building siege works, and supporting the legions of heavy infantry. Tacitus, who provides an insight into the value of a fleet as a strike force, makes the threat posed to barbarian liberty by the extent of Roman naval power a feature of his stirring speech on Roman imperialism.
Arming Greeks for Battle
Authors: Jarva Eero
Published: February 2013

This chapter explores the Greek armored infantrymen and the weapons they carried. The hoplite shield is called Argive. The Boeotian is a shield that appears on seventh- and sixth-century BC vase paintings and on Boeotian coins. Xenophon's ideal helmet was a hat-like helmet. Many vase paintings indicate that the corslets represented in them were built by cutting them from a sheet. Armoring of the limbs was restricted to the use of greaves and ankle guards. The principal weapon of soldiers for centuries has been the thrusting spear. There should be a metal reinforcement in the butt end of the thrusting spear and its head weight varies from ca 0.12 to 0.95 kg. Victory on the battlefield had necessitated effective weapons and armor. The depth of a formation could impose psychological pressure on opponents, while shield blazons presented terrifying, apotropaic warnings.
Greeks Under Siege
Authors: Chaniotis Angelos
Published: February 2013

This chapter deals with the significance of siege, not primarily as a phenomenon of ancient military tactics and warfare, but of cultural and social history, concentrating on the challenges it presented for political and military leaders, technological innovators, and authors seeking to instruct and to please. Sieges were common in Greek warfare. Many had no impact on the entire city but only the fortified citadel or the fort of a garrison. They have also constituted a challenge for the emotions of men and women, mortals and gods, those who experienced them, and those who found pleasure in writing or reading narratives about them. The contribution of scientists to the art of siege is considered. The advance of the “art of siege” and the dramatic improvement of fortifications went hand in hand with the introduction of a new genre of technical literature.
Finding the Enemy
Authors: Russell Frank
Published: February 2013

This chapter analyzes tactical intelligence, following a division by posture: offensive and mobile, and defensive or localized. There was an increase in the use of vanguards among the Greeks after the fourth century BC and among the Romans in the first. Cavalry widely used in this role. The role of reconnaissance in border security is then evaluated. It is noted that the speculatores who accompanied the legions left the field for the office sometime in the first century AD. Greek military intelligence never became professionalized, and did not ponder the sophistication of the prototypical organizations fielded by the tyrants of Cyprus and Sicily in the fourth century. Professionalism and unit identification in intelligence came neither to the poleis nor the kingdoms of Classical or Hellenistic Greece, and came finally to the Romans at least a century after they had pervaded the legions.
Greek Rituals of War
Authors: Tompkins Daniel P.
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the Greek military ritual of war. It evaluates the recent interpretations of military ritual, indicating that the term “ritual” in the present day has taken on so many connotations as to reduce its analytic utility, and that the claim that rituals promote “social cohesion” requires careful review. Lunar festivals deeply affected Greek military behavior. Booty from war was traditionally tithed. The burial ritual followed elaborate rules for prothesis, lying in state; ekphora, carrying out to burial, and a feast. The Carneia festival and the temple of Phobos, “Panic Fear,” is then explained. The data presented reveal that the “ritual” offers a useful but often imprecise tool for understanding military behavior. It may be worthwhile to seek a finer-grained understanding of the link between the “rituals” of ancient warfare and “social cohesion.”
Greeks and Achaemenid Persians
Authors: Laforse Bruce
Published: February 2013

This chapter addresses the battle against Achaemenid Persians. Shortly before the fateful battle of Cunaxa, Cyrus the Younger told his Greek officers why they fought and how their lives would improve if they should defeat the army of his brother, Artaxerxes II. Cyrus framed his speech entirely in terms of the Greek/Barbarian dichotomy. The chapter also shows how key aspects of the Greek/Barbarian dichotomy developed. The poetry from Homer until the Persian Wars contains only hints of the Greek/Barbarian stereotypes. In the Persae, Aeschylus presents the victorious Greeks as free men, collectively fighting in disciplined well-organized fashion, their numbers and resources comparatively modest. To many Greeks, Persia was the enemy against whom it was in the best interests of all Greeks to set aside internal differences and unite.
The Peloponnesian War and Its Sieges
Authors: Seaman Michael
Published: February 2013

This chapter discusses the sieges of cities, wanton plunder, and massacres in the period of the Peloponnesian War, which contributed more misery to the Greeks than all previous wars and saw an increase in the number of cities taken and Greeks killed or exiled. It can often be seen in Greek siege warfare that a city surrendered after internal ideological strife brought about a betrayal of the town. The Greeks experienced a dramatic rise in the number of sieges during the Peloponnesian War, but sieges and the atrocities that often accompanied them were experienced by Greek poleis before the Peloponnesian War and long before the late fifth century BC. They made assaults on cities throughout the Peloponnesian War.
Storytelling and Media
Authors: Isbouts Jean-Pierre , Ohler Jason
Published: February 2013

In the history of human experience, one of our most pervasive and enduring reference points is our need for story. Stories help us to understand ourselves in terms of who we are, what we need, and why we behave the way we do. The more those narratives stretch across cultures and throughout the ages, the more they become touchstones of the human experience. Indeed, the need for narratives to define ourselves has never been more apropos than today, when we find ourselves in the midst of the digital revolution. Part I of this chapter, written by Jean-Pierre Isbouts, traces the relationship between storytelling and media from ancient times to today, and argues why the last decades have forced us to radically redefine the traditional Aristotelian model of storytelling. Part II, written by Jason Ohler, investigates the future of storytelling, particularly with regard to online, participatory, and multidimensional media.
Research Methods, Design, and Statistics in Media Psychology
Authors: Prot Sara , Anderson Craig A.
Published: February 2013

This chapter provides an overview of contemporary research methods used in the field of media psychology. Basic scientific principles are discussed. Commonly used research designs are described. Some methodological pitfalls in media psychology research are explained and suggestions are given on how to avoid them. Finally, guidelines are given on how to convey scientific methodology and findings to the general public (see Chapter 26). We hope that this chapter will aid readers from other fields in becoming informed consumers of media psychology research and aid media psychology researchers in continuing the trend toward better methodological quality in the field.
Sexual Media Practice: How Adolescents Select, Engage with, and Are Affected by Sexual Media
Authors: Shafer Autumn , Bobkowski Piotr , Brown Jane D.
Published: February 2013

This chapter focuses on the role media play in the sexual socialization of adolescents and emerging adults in modern societies. The review of relevant research and theory is organized around the Sexual Media Practice Model’s core components of identity, selection, engagement, and application, which are based on the following assumptions: (1) media consumers are active participants and sometimes content producers; (2) selection and use of sexual media are motivated by the adolescent’s identity or sexual self-concept; (3) sexual media effects are a cyclical process, such that sexual content may be sought that reinforces existing tendencies that leads to further use of relevant content and further effects; and (4) friends and peers are important throughout the process in generating, sharing, and interpreting media. The discussion includes suggestions for further research and an examination of potential media-related solutions to enhance healthy adolescent sexuality.
Serious Games: What Are They? What Do They Do? Why Should We Play Them?
Authors: Blumberg Fran C. , Almonte Debby E. , Anthony Jared S. , Hashimoto Naoko
Published: February 2013

Serious games are designed to entertain and educate players, and to promote behavioral change. This chapter reviews characterizations of serious games and the theoretical perspectives, most notably Social Cognitive Theory, that have been used to account for their effects, and game elements such as identity, immersion, and interactivity. It also surveys the diverse areas in which serious games have been used, such as health, education, civic engagement, and advertising. It concludes by identifying future directions for serious game design research and development that will promote transfer of skills and content from the game to the real world, including debriefing and explication of players’ behaviors and cognitive skills while playing.
Video Games and Attention
Authors: West Robert , Bailey Kira
Published: February 2013

The widespread consumption of video games has led social commentators and scientists to question the effects of this medium on the human experience. Within the social and cognitive sciences, investigators have devoted considerable energy to characterizing the effects of video game experience on cognitive and social information processing and behavior (Anderson et al., 2010; Green, Li, & Bavelier, 2010). This chapter considers the emerging literature demonstrating a relationship between video game experience and clinical attention deficits, and provides an integrative review of the literature related to the association between video game experience and attention within three domains (visuospatial processing, executive function, and emotion). This literature reveals that video game experience can both enhance and disrupt various aspects of attention related to these aspects of mental life. Building on existing evidence, future research should seek to identify the boundary conditions under which effects of video game experience are observed and determine the effects of this medium on attention in natural settings.
Soviet-American Relations Through the Cold War
Authors: Pechatnov Vladimir O.
Published: February 2013

This chapter analyzes the dynamics of the United States–Soviet Union relations during the Cold War. It describes the evolution of the “strategic codes” on both sides, and how they perceived the nature and prospects of the conflict. The chapter suggests that this relationship can be divided into a number of distinct stages. These include the assessment of the nature and possible prospects of the protracted conflict in 1945–1953, the growing competitiveness of the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s to the late 1960s, the slackening of Soviet economic growth in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, and the economic crisis and economic stagnation of the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s to 1991.
China and the Cold War
Authors: Mitter Rana
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the role of China in the Cold War. It describes the origins of Cold War in China and the participation of nationalist China in World War 2 and the Cold War, and suggests that China played a pivotal role as the third (albeit shorter) leg of a cold war tripod. The chapter contends that the Cold War era in China is inseparable from the political supremacy Mao Zedong, and highlights the impact of the split between China and the Soviet Union on the role of China in the Cold War. It also argues that the 1972 Sino-United States rapprochement contributed to the fading of China from the Cold War narrative.
Latin America
Authors: Schoultz Lars
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the role of Latin America in the Cold War. It explains that Latin America did not play a significant independent role in the Cold War and largely served as a symbol whereby communist adversaries could attempt to tilt the bipolar balance of power. It discusses how Latin America's military became the U.S. government's vehicle for meeting the communist challenge and highlights America's fear that Moscow-directed local communists would consolidate their strength among important social groups, especially labor unions, and eventually seize power at a propitious moment. Thus, the U.S policy focus for Latin America turned to military aid.
Japan and the Cold War
Authors: Best Antony
Published: February 2013

This chapter, which examines the impact of the Cold War on Japan, investigates why Japan consistently allied itself to the West rather than the East and why it adopted a low-security posture. It discusses the contribution of Japan to the Western alliance system, its role in the Cold War in Asia, and how its economic power was used to fight the spread of communism. The chapter also argues against the claim that Japan “sat out” the Cold War and explains that every aspect of Japanese life, including political, strategic, economic, and cultural, was influenced to some extent by that ideological conflict.
Power and Culture in the West
Authors: Endy Christopher
Published: February 2013

This chapter, which analyzes the Cold War culture in the West, suggests that there are three major forms of western Cold War culture. These include the culture of anti-communist repression, the culture of progressive reform and inclusion, and the culture of popular resistance to elite-driven Cold War mobilization. The chapter provides a definition of culture and “west,” and highlights the role of Catholicism in Latin America in Cold War culture. It also suggests that an analysis of western Cold War culture should start in the mid-1940s when the surge in leftist politics led moderate and conservative elites to pursue appeasement, repression, or a combination of both.
Decolonization and the Cold War
Authors: Fraser Cary
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines decolonization during the Cold War. It suggests that decolonization can be considered both as a response to the globalization of European influence and as a process of globalization which paved the way for the dismantling of the North Atlantic-centered international system. The chapter contends that decolonization during the Cold War was about the rethinking of the nature of the global order and the role of race and citizenship therein. It also argues that decolonization is the proof and constant reminder that the bipolar order pursued by the superpowers and their allies after the war was never a stable framework for the management of international relations.
The End of the Cold War
Authors: Guyatt Nicholas
Published: February 2013

This chapter discusses the history of the end of the Cold War. It describes different versions of what signified the end of the Cold War, which include the demolition of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev's declaration that the Soviet Union would no longer use its military to subdue the satellite states of the Warsaw Pact in 1988, and the reunification of Germany in October 1990. The chapter also considers the consequences of the end of the Cold War, which include a renewed search for international order and cooperation.
Ethical Theories of Mordecai Kaplan and Abraham Joshua Heschel
Authors: LaGrone Matthew
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the thoughts of the most significant and influential theologians in American Jewish religious life, Mordecai Kaplan and Abraham Joshua Heschel. Emerging from the pragmatism and naturalism of the early decades of the century, Kaplan fostered a fascination with humanity that led him to eschew traditional Judaism's theocentric views of morality. For him, it would be better to understand Judaism as a civilization—no better and no worse than others—and jettison mitzvoth (commandments) in favour of “folkways” so as to inspire social behaviour, for it is through the folk themselves that morality comes into being. Heschel, by contrast, favours a more mystical and theocentric approach. For him the prophets best articulated the apocalyptic dangers of even the smallest immorality and the need to rise above human communities to root morality in God's will for us.
Ethical Theories in the Conservative Movement
Authors: Cherry Shai
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines Conservative Judaism and ethic. Changing what Jews do and altering the reasons why they should do things differently was not an exclusively Reform endeavour; Conservative Judaism has also instituted innovations, especially since World War II. These changes are most evident in Conservative liturgy as well as in halakhic positions vis-à-vis women, homosexuality, and mamzerut (bastardy). Conservative thinkers and scholars of Jewish law, however, have taken diverse approaches as to how and when to make such changes, and so one cannot articulate a single “Conservative theory” of Jewish ethics. The chapter presents the author's own approach in contrast to those of some of the other representatives of Conservative Judaism, whose theories and legal rulings are discussed.
Jewish Political Ethics in Israel
Authors: Hammer Reuven
Published: February 2013

This chapter addresses the following questions: Who is a Jew to qualify for immediate citizenship under Israel's Law of Return? Who may be married or buried as a Jew? How can Israel be both a Jewish state and a democratic state open to non-Jews as well as Jews? What authority, if any, should classical Jewish law have in the Jewish state in contrast to laws legislated by the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) and precedents used by judges (based largely on British Common Law together with decisions of Israeli courts from 1948 on)? How should Israel respond to the Palestinians claiming to be refugees driven from their lands in 1948, and what should it do with the large Arab population living in the West Bank that Israel conquered in the 1967 war? Can it remain a Jewish state and also a democracy if it retains the West Bank and then, in the not-too-distant future, the majority of the population is no longer Jewish?
Judaism and Criminal Justice
Authors: Levenson Laurie L.
Published: February 2013

This chapter explores Jewish criminal justice, first discussing the rationales that make punishment moral and not just an exercise of sovereign power. It then addresses capital punishment, decreed for thirty-six different offenses in the Torah but made virtually inoperative by the Rabbis. Next, the chapter turns to what makes a defendant criminally liable, describing the conceptions of causation, joint offenders, criminal intent, and defences in Jewish law; with that as a foundation, it asks whether there is anything like a victimless crime in Jewish law. Finally, it describes the lessons that Western criminal justice can learn from both the content and the processes of Jewish criminal law.
Linguistic Anthropology
Authors: Shibamoto-Smith Janet S. , Chand Vineeta
Published: February 2013

This chapter reviews the development of linguistic anthropology as it relates to sociolinguistics, including some particulars of the concept of fieldwork and ethnography, as well as some of the changes in the nature of field sites that have occurred over the last few decades. It also looks at some of the new strands of empirical work and theorizing that have emerged as a result of these changes. The chapter ends with some thoughts on how socially oriented linguistics of all sorts might productively work together toward meshing the concerns of quantitative sociolinguistics in the population-wide, emergent patterns of language use that characterize a community of speakers with the historical, discursive, and ideological understandings of on-the-ground speaking events, which remain the core concern of linguistic anthropology.
Doers and Makers
Authors: McAll Christopher
Published: February 2013

The problem of interdisciplinary frontiers comes out in the parallel stories of sociology and the study of language. This chapter considers these interwoven stories in relation to four major paradigms: social evolutionism, biologically inspired organic functionalism, the technical-system approach, and a social constructivism that places emphasis on individual and collective responsibility for outcomes. To look more closely at this question in relation to sociology and the study of language, it begins with the “certainties” of nineteenth-century social evolutionism and with the profound effects of the following century’s two world wars on the history of social thought. The chapter explores the relationship between sociology and sociolinguistics. Drawing examples from bi- and multilingual settings, the discussion shows how the sociology of language is a key part of the sociological enterprise.
Interdisciplinary Approaches
Authors: Mallinson Christine , Kendall Tyler
Published: February 2013

Historiographers often have narrated sociolinguistics as an interdisciplinary field that originated at the intersection of sociology, anthropology, and linguistics. This chapter reviews interdisciplinary literature that speaks to the topics, techniques, and extent to which sociolinguists, other linguists, and other scholars have converged. It focuses on three sites of inquiry: (1) language, computation, and the mind; (2) language, identity, and culture; and (3) language and social stratification. Sociolinguistics can expect to continue to integrate and align with these interests through continuing advancements in technology, mathematical and computational methods, databases of available data, and knowledge of cognition.
Quantitative Analysis
Authors: Gorman Kyle , Johnson Daniel Ezra
Published: February 2013

A sociolinguist who has gathered so much data that it has become difficult to make sense of the raw observations can turn to graphical presentation, and to descriptive statistics, techniques for distilling a collection of data into a few key numerical values, allowing the researcher to focus on specific, meaningful properties of the data set. A sociolinguist evaluates hypotheses about the connections between linguistic behavior, speakers, and society. The researcher begins this process by gathering data with the potential to falsify the hypotheses under consideration. Inferential statistics allow the researcher to compute the probability that a hypothesized property of the data is due to chance, and to estimate the magnitude of the hypothesized effect. This chapter compares inferential methods appropriate for sociolinguistic data in terms of these assumptions. It examines elements of qualitative analysis and methods for binary analysis, multinomial variables, and continuous variables.
Methods for Studying Sign Languages
Authors: Lucas Ceil
Published: February 2013

This chapter begins by sharing an anecdote involving recruiting members of the Houston black Deaf community for a project on Black ASL to participate in the filming. The anecdote serves as an example of the kinds of methodological issues that can arise when collecting sociolinguistic data in Deaf communities. Many of these issues are of course not unique to Deaf communities—researchers who work in spoken-language communities encounter many of the same issues. The chapter discusses methods for the sociolinguistic studies in sign language communities. It includes four main topics: data collection, defining variables and constraints, data reduction, and dissemination of the findings.
Pidgins and Creoles
Authors: Webb Eric Russell
Published: February 2013

Pidgin and creole languages are found throughout the world, with relatively greater concentrations in the Caribbean basin, the Indian Ocean, the coast of Western and Central Africa, and Oceania. In most literature, pidgins and creoles are grouped according to respective lexifiers, from which the bulk of their vocabulary derives. Emerging in contact environments, pidgins and creoles have been profoundly influenced by sociolinguistic forces and offer compelling evidence of the extent to which extra-grammatical factors contribute to the shape of language. This chapter pursues two questions. What is the interest of these languages to contemporary sociolinguistics? And how can the adoption of a sociolinguistic posture better address the distinction of creole from non-creole?
Codeswitching
Authors: Li Wei
Published: February 2013

Many psycholinguists maintain that bilinguals operate between monolingual modes and a bilingual mode. What this means is that bilinguals can behave as if they were monolingual by using only one of the languages they know. It is only when they are using more than one language in the same episode of interaction that they are in a bilingual model. Codeswitching is a term used to describe a range of linguistic behavior that involves the use of more than one language or language variety in the same interaction. This chapter focuses on some of the key issues of codeswitching for sociolinguists, beginning with a discussion of the terminological and methodological issues. Then, it provides a review of the studies on the motivations and structural patterns of codeswitching. Lastly, the chapter presents an alternative approach to codeswitching that views it as a creative performance rather than as simply a combination of linguistic structures.
Sign Language Contact
Authors: Quinto-Pozos David , Adam Robert
Published: February 2013

This chapter argues that language contact is the norm in Deaf communities, and that deaf people are typically multilingual. They use signed, written, and, in some cases, spoken languages for daily communication, which means that aspects of the spoken and/or written languages of the larger communities are in constant interaction with the signed languages. If one considers the contact that results from users of two different signed languages interacting, various comparisons can be made to contact that occurs across two or more spoken languages. The term unimodal contact, or that which comes about because of two languages within the same modality, can be used to characterize such contact. However, if one considers the contact that results from interaction between a signed and a spoken or written language, the term bimodal (or even multimodal) contact is more appropriate.
Sociophonetics
Authors: Baranowski Maciej
Published: February 2013

The term sociophonetics refers to the interface of sociolinguistics and phonetics, and specifically to the use of modern phonetic methods in the quantitative analysis of language variation and change. Although its definition can be quite broad, including any sociolinguistic study involving sounds analysed impressionistically, it usually implies the use of instrumental techniques. This chapter takes the view of sociophonetics as a tool contributing to the understanding of the nature of language variation and change. Assuming a basic knowledge of acoustic phonetics, it focuses on sociophonetic methodology, particularly in the practice of acoustic vowel analysis.
Phonology and Sociolinguistics
Authors: Nagy Naomi
Published: February 2013

This chapter examines the fields of phonology and sociolinguistics, focusing on examples that bring their domains closer. It reviews instances where data organized by variationists have served to further develop Lexical Phonology, Optimality Theory, and Exemplar Theory (ET). This transition requires reexamining certain fundamental assumptions of traditional models of generative phonology. The discussion considers ways in which these developments have influenced sociolinguistic research design and interpretation, particularly regarding which gradient aspects are relevant to social perception and categorization. It also provides the groundwork for a unified linguistic model to be developed by collaboration across sociolinguistics, phonology, and other fields.
Morphosyntactic Variation
Authors: King Ruth
Published: February 2013

This chapter first reviews early methodological and theoretical debates regarding the nature of variation above the level of phonology. These debates include whether or not the notion of the linguistic variable can be legitimately extended to morphosyntactic variation; the nature of the relationship between quantitative data and the statistical results based on them and linguistic competence; and what role linguistic introspection should play. The discussion deals with current trends in modeling morphosyntactic variation, or, put differently, with the emerging field of socio-syntax. There are two main responses to the question of where morphosyntactic variation comes from. One perspective involves the postulation of multiple grammars, most prominently in Kroch’s Competing Grammars model. The other relies on the Minimalist operations of feature interpretation and feature checking.
Language Policy, Ideology, and Attitudes in English-Dominant Countries
Authors: Ricento Thomas
Published: February 2013

Many subfields within sociolinguistics have been influenced by developments in linguistics and social theory over the past half century. This has certainly been the case in the field of language policy and planning (LPP), which has incorporated new ways of thinking about language, society, and cognition, as evidenced by the published research in journals and books. This chapter considers the ways in which views on the nature of language, language ideologies, and language and identity have fundamentally altered the research agendas and foci in the field of LPP over the past several decades. It examines how these newer ways of understanding language in society have been applied to English-speaking countries, particularly with reference to North America.
Language Awareness in Community Perspective
Authors: Wolfram Walt
Published: February 2013

This chapter notes that community-based research is at the core of sociolinguistics. Practically, all sociolinguistic researchers work with speech communities of some type. The awareness of regional and social place is hierarchical in that people identify strongly with their local neighborhood, their immediate community of residency, and the regional areas and the state in which their community is located. There are many levels of local, regional, and cultural affiliations that might be included in the definition of speech community, and sociolinguistic researchers may have opportunities to work with communities on the multiple levels of these embedded and hierarchical notions of community.
Linguistic and Ecological Diversity
Authors: Romaine Suzanne
Published: February 2013

After outlining the current state of linguistic diversity and language endangerment, this chapter examines the nature of the geographic interface between linguistic and ecological diversity. It explains why the extinction of languages is part of the larger picture of near-total collapse of the worldwide ecosystem, and why languages are vital parts of complex local ecologies that must be supported if global biodiversity is to be maintained. In view of the strong relationship between areas of potential endangerment for species and for languages and their associated cultures, the chapter suggests that integrated strategies need to be developed to ensure the survival of both human diversity and biological diversity on our rapidly globalizing planet.
Environmental Politics and Policy in Historical Perspective
Authors: Andrews Richard N. L.
Published: February 2013

This article provides a historical overview of the foundations and evolution of U.S. environmental politics and policy over time, and of research on them, from their early foundations through the parallel and intersecting histories of natural resource development and conservation, environmental health, and other policies that ultimately have shaped contemporary environmental policy issues. It also suggests potential lessons from history about the U.S. political system and policy change over time and about research needs for the future.
Green Political Ideas and Environmental Policy
Authors: Baber Walter , Bartlett Robert
Published: February 2013

The development of U.S. environmental policy has been influenced by six collections of ideas from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. All six—ecological perspectives, notions about knowledge and rationality, participatory politics, economic principles, environmental justice, and organizational structure—continue to affect ongoing policy, policy debates, and policy initiatives, sometimes in conflict with each other. This article provides a brief overview of these six sets of ideas as they have appeared in the research literature and have (or have not) influenced environmental politics and policy development in the United States. It concludes with a discussion of why political theory and political philosophy have not been, and are not soon likely to be, significant contributors to the pool of influential green political ideas shaping American environmental politics and policy.
Ethical Challenges in Environmental Policy
Authors: Paehlke Robert C.
Published: February 2013

This article begins by discussing the historical links between environmental policy and environmental ethics. It then examines some of the ethical issues associated with protecting wild nature and wilderness. It discusses the idea of environmental rights, including the possibility that there is a right to a clean environment. Next, it considers the ethical dimensions of the relationship between social inequality and environmental protection: how can we assure that the opportunities to utilize and to enjoy and be sustained by nature are fairly distributed among humans? It discusses ethical concerns raised in debates over environmental aspects of using private and common property. The article concludes with a discussion of the ethical aspects of emerging environmental policy concerns, including genetically modified organisms and climate change.
Capacity for Governance
Authors: Rosenbaum Walter A.
Published: February 2013

This article discusses four of the most significant domestic innovations in environmental governance since the first Earth Day in 1970. These are the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 and its complementary creation of the Environmental Impact Statement; common pool resources management; and the Clean Air Act of 1970. The article begins by placing these important innovations in the context of major challenges posed to domestic environmental governance by the Third Environmental Era. It then considers the research significance of these innovations and examines important research issues now posed by continuing experience with this domestic governance. It provides a comprehensive review and assessment of the literature of environmental politics and policy by examining the important current literature about environmental governance and its implications for a future research agenda, issues fundamental to any discussion of environmental politics and policy, past and future.
U.S. Climate Change Politics
Authors: Selin Henrik , VanDeveer Stacy D.
Published: February 2013

This article analyzes federal and international aspects of U.S. climate change politics and policy making. It begins by discussing a few key aspects of U.S. federalism and the governance complexity of addressing climate change as a prime example of a third-generation environmental problem. It then examines American climate change politics at federal and subnational governance levels, involving a multitude of legal and political activities and interactions by a large number of public, private, and civil society sector actors. Next, it discusses U.S. global and transnational engagement around climate change mitigation and adaptation issues, before offering a few concluding remarks about the future of U.S. climate change governance. In addition, it identifies some priority areas for continuing empirical research and more in-depth analysis.
United States International Environmental Policy
Authors: DeSombre Elizabeth R.
Published: February 2013

This article analyzes the determinants of U.S. international environmental policy. The U.S. has always exhibited a streak of reluctance about international environmental cooperation, sometimes taking on leadership roles but often resisting or actively hindering international action to address environmental problems. Several hypotheses have been proposed to account for U.S. behavior: a general U.S. suspicion of multilateralism that may be a manifestation of a belief in U.S. exceptionalism; the costliness of environmental regulation or special characteristics of the United States that make international environmental action more difficult on some issues than for other states; concern about international action that delivers benefits primarily to developing states at a cost to the United States; or even the existing uncertainty present in many international environmental issues.
Global Environmental Policy Making
Authors: O'Neill Kate
Published: February 2013

This article discusses the emergence of the environment as a global policy issue and the ways in which the international community has responded to global environmental problems, focusing on the period since the first global conference on the environment, held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972. It assesses the role of the United States in global environmental governance over this time period, as well as the impacts of global environmental policy on the country itself. It also traces the emergence and maturation of a distinct body of academic literature: global, or international, environmental politics. Beginning as a subfield of international relations theory, this literature has broadened into an interdisciplinary social science field of its own, addressing both the political causes of the global environmental crisis and the politics of global environmental governance.