bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Internet usage and the problems about the commute to school in Japanese adolescents
Authors: Sato M , Isomura T , Suzuki K
Published: October 2020

Introduction

As inappropriate Internet usage has been increasing, various problems were observed, particularly in adolescence. For example, excessive Internet use might lead to absenteeism for high school students. This study aimed to examine the association between Internet usage and some difficulties of commute, such as tardy and absence for school in 4th to 9th-grade students.

Methods

Study participants were all students of the 4th-9th grade in Japanese rural public schools and their parents. In 2018 a self-reported survey was conducted. The questionnaire contained items about Internet usage, such as duration and family rules, and the current situation about commuting to school. The parents answered the same questions about their children and also responded to their own Internet usage time. The answers about their commute to school “tardy more than once a week”, “sometimes absent” and “have experience of school absenteeism” were categorized as “school absence”. The duration of Internet use was categorized every 2 hours as “never”, “0-2hrs (reference) ”, “2-4hrs” and “over 6hrs”. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the associations between the duration of Internet use and the absence of school adjusting by covariates.

Results

Study participants were 6,031 students and 5,525 guardians participated, and response rates were 87.8%, and 80.5%, respectively. The number of “school absence” case was 429 (7.2%). The “school absence” was significantly associated with the duration of Internet use, and these relationships grew stronger as the period got longer. Odds ratio and 95% confidence interval of “over 6hrs” were 4.1 and 2.9-5.6, respectively. The parents’ own Internet usage time was also associated with their children’s school absence.

Conclusions

The longer students used the Internet, the higher the risk of school absence. Own Internet usage time of parents was also associated with children's commuting to school.

Key messages

Excessive Internet use might induce absenteeism in younger adolescents as well as older adolescents. Few studies have examined the association between Internet use and absenteeism.
Can trust induce vertical integration? An experimental study of buyer–seller exchanges with distinct competencies and specific investments
Authors: Mesquita Luiz F , Saes Maria Sylvia M , Lazzarini Sérgio G , Pongeluppe Leandro S
Published: October 2020

Research has debated the merits of transaction cost and competence-based explanations of make-versus-buy choices. We advance this discussion by arguing that trust not only promotes markets by reducing the hazards of specific investments (as emphasized by previous work), but alternatively triggers vertical integration when parties would like to internalize distinctive competencies and at the same time avoid hierarchical failure. Our experimental results where players choose between markets and hierarchies lend support for this dual role of trust in boundary decisions.
A pseudo-spectrum based characterization of the robust strong H-infinity norm of time-delay systems with real-valued and structured uncertainties
Authors: Appeltans Pieter , Michiels Wim
Published: October 2020

This paper provides a mathematical characterization of the robust (strong) H-infinity norm of an uncertain linear time-invariant system with discrete delays in terms of the robust distance to instability of an associated characteristic matrix. The considered class of uncertainties consists of real-valued, structured, Frobenius norm-bounded matrix uncertainties that act on the coefficient matrices. The robust H-infinity norm, defined as the worst-case value of the H-infinity norm over all admissible uncertainty values, is an important measure of robust performance to quantify the worst-case disturbance rejection of an uncertain dynamical system. For the considered system class, this robust H-infinity norm is however a fragile measure, as for a particular instance of the uncertainties, the H-infinity norm might be sensitive to arbitrarily small perturbations on the delays. Therefore, we introduce the robust strong H-infinity norm, inspired by the notion of strong stability of delay differential equations of neutral type, which takes into account both the uncertainties on the system matrices and infinitesimal delay perturbations. This quantity is a continuous function of both the elements of the system matrices and the delays. The main contribution of this work is the introduction of a relation between this robust strong H-infinity norm and the robust distance to instability of an associated characteristic matrix. This relation is subsequently employed in a novel algorithm for computing the robust strong H-infinity norm of uncertain time-delay systems.
Fatal N-Ethylhexedrone Intoxication
Authors: Domagalska Ewa , Banaszkiewicz Laura , Woźniak Mateusz Kacper , Kata Marzena , Szpiech Beata , Kaliszan Michał
Published: October 2020

N-Ethylhexedrone [2-(ethyloamino)-1-phenylhexan-1-one; α-ethylaminohexanophenone (NEH)] is one of the most recent synthetic cathinones that appeared on the illegal market in late 2015. The majority of information concerning the model of consumption of NEH and its impact on the body originates only from self-reports from gray literature websites and drug forums. There are only limited data associated with the concentrations of NEH in blood samples available in the literature. This article presents a case of fatal NEH intoxication and a method for the determination of this substance in whole blood. A 21-year-old man without any diagnosed diseases was admitted to the hospital due to disorientation, aggression and finally loss of consciousness. Hyperthermia (>41°C), tachycardia (>160 beats per minute), tachypnea (20 breaths per minute), blood pressure (110/60 mmHg) and acute kidney failure were diagnosed. After a few hours of hospitalization, the patient died. A plastic bag with a white powder was found in his underwear. Analysis of the powder by another laboratory revealed cocaine hydrochloride; however, no cocaine or its metabolites were found in the biological material upon testing in our laboratory. Therefore, re-analysis of the powder was performed, and NEH was identified. Liquid–liquid extraction followed by liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis were used for the determination of NEH in blood. The validation parameters were as follows: calibration range 1–250 ng/mL, accuracy 106.5–109.9%, precision 3.5–6.3%, recovery 90.1–96.9%, limit of detection 0.07 ng/mL and limit of quantification 1 ng/mL. NEH was quantified in the blood at a concentration of 145 ng/mL. Additionally, amphetamine at low concentrations and 11-nor-9-karboksy-Δ9-tetrahydrokannabinol (THC-COOH) were detected.

Our study provided information on the possible lethal concentration and toxidrome that clinicians can observe for NEH-intoxicated patients and can be helpful during the preparation of toxicology analysis reports for a court of law for proper data interpretation.
Appointment of Arbitrators
Authors: Paulsson Jan
Published: October 2020

This chapter details the process of the appointment of arbitrators. In modern usage, arbitration is binding, and anything else created by agreement is some form or another of what might generically be referred to as third-party assisted negotiation. This explains why arbitration contemplates an odd number of arbitrators; indeed, laws regulating arbitration frequently explicitly require it. It follows that the ‘odd’ arbitrator, i.e. the one whose voice will be decisive in the event of failure of unanimity, must be appointed jointly, or by a neutral mechanism agreed by the arbitrants. That is simple enough when the process calls for a sole arbitrator. However, if the tribunal is to be composed of three arbitrators, it is often agreed that each side may select anyone it wishes provided they satisfy minimal criteria—such as professional qualifications and the readiness to declare themselves independent and impartial. The chapter then considers the different appointment methods. It specifically evaluates the practice of unilateral appointments, which introduces an adversarial element into the very deliberation of the arbitral tribunal.
International Arbitration as Private and Public Good
Authors: Michaels Ralf
Published: October 2020

This chapter addresses the private and public nature of international arbitration. International arbitration is often characterized as an exclusively private dispute resolution mechanism, sharply distinguished from litigation, which is viewed as public because it is provided by the state. This is clearest for commercial arbitration. Commercial arbitration is initiated on the basis of a private arrangement: a party cannot be subjected to arbitration unless they agreed to it previously. Investment arbitration is a little more difficult to categorize, given its emergence from public international law, its involvement of states as parties, and the frequency with which it deals with public law measures. Indeed, significant differences exist between commercial and investment arbitration. Nevertheless, it too is characterized as a private dispute resolution mechanism at least in the sense that it is resolved by institutions other than state courts. The chapter then evaluates whether arbitration is a private or public good. It also demonstrates the ways in which adjudication by courts combines elements of private and public goods, before finding a parallel combination of private and public good aspects in international arbitration.
Investment Arbitration as Constitutional Law
Authors: Schneiderman David
Published: October 2020

This chapter argues that investment arbitration serves functions analogous to high courts when interpreting constitutional text. As in the case of high courts issuing authoritative interpretations of constitutional texts, arbitrators are tasked with determining the propriety of state action with reference to open-ended obligations that states owe to foreign investors and their investments. Viewed from this angle, investment arbitration can be likened to the performance of judicial review under national constitutions. This is a proposition that will be resisted by many investment lawyers and arbitrators. Analogizing to constitutional rules and institutions will be seen as contributing to a ‘legitimacy crisis’ presently confronting investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS). Legitimation problems have arisen because legitimacy requires more than merely following correct legal processes. There is expected to be some value beyond mere legality served by the power of coercive law. Indeed, investment arbitration will continue to be of doubtful legitimacy so long as investment arbitration is characterized as performing constitution-like functions.
The Rule of Law Effects of Commercial Arbitration from a Socio-Legal Perspective
Authors: Dietz Thomas
Published: October 2020

This chapter presents a socio-legal perspective on international commercial arbitration (ICA) that is rooted in the empirical view of contract as developed in a long line of law and society scholarship most prominently associated with Steward Macaulay. As the key feature, such a socio-legal approach to ICA adopts a law-in-action rather than a law-in-books perspective. In this sense, individual actors and organizations do not simply follow the law, but may alter, reinforce, manipulate, or even ignore the law in their daily courses of action. Law is thus assumed to be a living institution embedded in societal structures, rather than an accumulation of formal rules. However, ICA is often misunderstood as a clear-cut, authoritative, and coercive legal mechanism that directly guides individual behavior in cross-border contractual relations without taking into account that the relation between legal institutions and human behavior are in fact much more diffused and shaped by various individual interests, non-legal institutions, and civil power. As a consequence of this naïve legal understanding, existing approaches on ICA tend to perpetuate a number of misleading images about ICA's role in global commerce.
Investment Arbitration and Political Systems Theory
Authors: Dupont Cédric , Schultz Thomas , Yackee Jason Webb
Published: October 2020

This chapter suggests a vision of investment treaty arbitration filtered through the lens of political systems theory. Political systems theory was developed in the 1950s and 1960s by David Easton, an eminent political scientist. The core idea of Easton’s theory is that political systems can be understood as consisting of inputs from various actors that are aggregated and transformed into outputs, where outputs consist of the authoritative allocation of values. As such, a political-systems approach encourages people to move beyond overly reductionist visions of international investment law as a quasi-inevitable product of state–investor interactions, or as the quasi-autonomous and teleological identification and imposition by tribunals of necessarily sensible or correct rules of state behaviour. Indeed, the chapter argues that seeing investment arbitration as political system allows people to bring out elements of its workings with greater clarity. Altogether, this helps people get a better sense of some of the key dynamics of investment arbitration.
Democracy, Global Governance, and Peaceful Change
Authors: Davies Thomas
Published: October 2020

Democracy, global governance, and peaceful change are often assumed to be mutually supportive aspirations. This chapter considers the arguments put forward in favor of this assumption, encompassing not only the prospective relationship between peaceful change and national democracy but also the presumed role in facilitating peaceful change of conceptions of democracy in global governance and in transnational relations. Each of these arguments is critiqued, and the chapter concludes by elucidating the limited role in peaceful change of democracy, whether it is considered at the national level or in global governance and transnational relations. The analysis considers peaceful change in both minimalist conceptions centered on war prevention and maximalist conceptions concerning the advancement of global justice, and it evaluates the roles of both established and emerging powers.
Realism and Peaceful Change
Authors: Shifrinson Joshua
Published: October 2020

What do structural and neoclassical realist theories say about the prospect for peaceful change in international relations? Although liberal and constructivist scholars often lambast realist approaches for downplaying the prospect for peaceful change, a close read of realist theory suggests some greater room for optimism. Particularly if states are separated by large distances or bodies of water, have robust military (especially nuclear) arsenals, attain regional hegemony, or have particularly propitious domestic systems, states may be able to adjudicate disputes peacefully with rivals and—at least in theory—reduce the intensity of international competition. For sure, anarchy, relative gains concerns, and the tendency for states to balance threats reduce the likelihood that states can transcend competition writ large. Nevertheless, the conventional wisdom has it wrong: realism in its structural and neoclassical forms does not inherently militate against peaceful change.
Selecting and Refining Measures for Assessing Digital Gaming Use and Misuse in Clinical and Research Settings
Authors: Faust Kyle A. , Faust David , Meyer Joseph F. , Cook Nathan E.
Published: October 2020

Throughout the years, various terminologies have been used to describe problematic digital gaming use. Due to differing definitions and criteria, there have similarly been a large number of measurement tools developed. Although the DSM-5 term “Internet gaming disorder” has recently become the most commonly used, it is likely that the ICD-11 could replace it with the term “gaming disorder.” This chapter provides a brief review of measurement tools and provides recommendations to strengthen future problematic gaming measurements. Recommendations include an agreed-upon definition of the problem; accounting for positive effects of gaming; accounting for careless and random responding; strengthening reliability; improving norms and reference groups; improving positive and negative predictive powers by strengthening sensitivity and specificity; utilizing additional longitudinal studies; producing more studies examining risk factors and course of problem gaming; comparing and contrasting various measurement tools; adjusting for age, language, and cultural factors; measuring time frame, outcome, and severity; and establishing proper balance in brevity and comprehensive measurement for ease of use in research and clinical practice.
Violent Media Use and Violent Outcomes
Authors: Groves Christopher L. , Prot Sara , Anderson Craig A.
Published: October 2020

Electronic media is an omnipresent form of entertainment in contemporary society. A large body of empirical evidence provides support for the notion that violent media use (e.g., television, films, video games) increases the likelihood of low-level everyday forms of physical, verbal, and relational aggression. Less work has been conducted on the effects of violent media on more extreme forms of aggression that can be considered violent. This chapter provides a review of the theoretical frameworks for understanding the potential effects of violent media use on violent outcomes. It follows this discussion with a selective review of the relevant literature regarding the effects of violent media use on violent outcomes, with a focus on the effects of violent video games. Conclusions are drawn regarding the state of the literature, current debate, and future directions needed for research.
Use of Digital Technology to Provide or Enhance the Delivery of Interventions for Adolescents
Authors: Camenga Deepa R. , Kong Grace E.
Published: October 2020

Adolescence is a critical period for the onset of mental health disorders, yet only about one-third of affected adolescents receive mental healthcare. Barriers to such care include poor access, stigma, and the lack of availability of proper resources to identify and treat mental health disease. Thus, the delivery of mental health services via new technologies may help mitigate some of these barriers. Digital technology–based interventions show promise for the treatment of various mental health conditions in adolescents. This chapter provides an overview of computer- and Internet-based therapeutic programs, texting programs using mobile phones, and serious games as they apply to a variety of conditions including depression/anxiety, eating disorders, and tobacco smoking, as well as mental healthcare utilization. The unique needs of adolescents are discussed in relation to the scaling of digital technologies and future directions for technology-enhanced mental healthcare.
Youth and Technology
Authors: van Schalkwyk Gerrit I. , Golt Joshua D. , Silverman Wendy K.
Published: October 2020

Use of the Internet for interpersonal communication has dramatically altered the lives of youth. Awareness of the unique properties of this style of communication has given rise to both concern and optimism about its developmental consequences. Current findings suggest that the Internet may act to supplement offline relationships and offer some utility to socially anxious youth, with relatively limited evidence for adverse effects on psychological well-being. However, there continue to be concerns about how Internet-mediated communication may affect certain vulnerable groups. In addition, although this technology may provide a new platform for sharing of information, current data points to negative consequences for overall academic performance. Further study is indicated given the complexity of this area.
Research Findings and Clinical Perspectives on Asian Media Technology Use, Mental Health Networking, and Other Social Aspects of Technology Use
Authors: Ko Chih-Hung , Yen Ju-Yu
Published: October 2020

Digital technologies are powerful tools for connecting individuals to each other and the world. Although concerns about the effects of mass media in varying forms (e.g., television and movies) on violence have been raised for decades, causal relationships between long-standing and more recently developed technologies and mental health considerations often remain obscure. Furthermore, variations and use of digital technologies and the Internet have expanded rapidly in recent years in Asia areas, as in Western society, and are increasingly impacting peoples’ lives. This review covers research on potential positive and negative effects of digital technologies, with an emphasis on Asian children and adolescents. The authors focus on problem Internet use or addiction, risky behaviors, and mental health problems related to excessive use of digital technologies, which appear to have a sizeable impact on children and adolescents, particularly in Asia. They also review how digital technologies may benefit child and adolescent mental health. As scientific knowledge in this field lags far behind the evolution of digital technologies, expansion and advancement in research is essential to address such issues as prevention and the design of effective treatment strategies.
Ritual Experts and Participants in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible
Authors: Hieke Thomas
Published: October 2020

The chapter summarizes the roles and tasks of ritual experts and participants within the Hebrew Bible and its cultural environment. The first part reflects on the responsibilities of the kings, the priests, and the priestesses within the ancient Near East (Mesopotamia, Mari, Hittite Anatolia) and ancient Egypt. Then the chapter turns to the concepts of the Hebrew Bible. The second part demonstrates how the priests and Levites take care for the rituals, the sacrifices, purity, teaching, and administration. Cult prophets and the king have their limited and special functions. Third, at certain points lay people may participate in the cult: the offering person, women, children, and the non-Israelite (the foreigner). The fourth section provides a brief overview over the historical development within the first millennium bce regarding the concepts and circumstances as they are represented in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.
Rabbinic Judaism
Authors: Reif Stefan C.
Published: October 2020

In the second Temple period, Jewish ritual and worship, following the example of the Hebrew Bible, centered on the cult of the Jerusalem Temple and on the more democratic institution of individual prayer, but the two elements had drawn closer to each other by the axial age. In their campaign to establish formal communal prayer as a theological priority, leading rabbis of the first two centuries were inspired not only by those two precedents but also by biblical formulas, the example set at Qumran, the notion of the berakhah, and by the development of the synagogue, which added prayer to its earlier interest in study, social activity, and the hosting of visitors. The shema’, ‘amidah, and birkat ha-mazon, as well as qiddush, havdalah, hallel, and the Passover Haggadah, were early components of rabbinic liturgy, and these gradually moved from the domestic and individual contexts to the synagogue and community. Towards the end of the talmudic period, liturgical poetry and mysticism, especially from the Jewish homeland, were incorporated into standard rabbinic prayers, but not until the ninth and tenth centuries did rabbinic leaders in Babylonia succeed in transforming the oral prayers into the written prayer-book. Although use was limited of the Hebrew Bible and lists of sacrifices from the earliest rabbinic liturgy, such scriptural readings acquired a more important, structured role in the late talmudic, post-talmudic, and early medieval periods. Although the temple service and priesthood figured in the liturgical poems, they had lost much of their status as spiritual intermediaries.
Ritual Theology in/and Biblical Theology
Authors: Klingbeil Gerald
Published: October 2020

Ritual is an integral part of the human experience and represents also a significant element of biblical religion. This chapter explores the important link between ritual and biblical theology, highlighting its role as a vehicle for communicating complex concepts related to worship, community, and “knowing” God. Rituals are often triggered by emotions and also generate an emotive response. They can abbreviate, emphasize, expand, critique, and innovate. Ancient ritual activity is not only expressed in texts but also in images, challenging the reader and observer to “make sense” of the world and God’s role in this world. Finally, since ritual appears in texts and traditions of most religious communities (including also the three Abrahamic faiths), it can function as a link and an invitation to dialogue about “rival tellings.”
The Movement of People and Things between Britain and France
Authors: Fleming Robin
Published: October 2020

Archaeological evidence for the economic links between Britain and France in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries suggests that networks of exchange were dramatically reordered during this period. A close examination of material evidence suggests that the networks of exchange, which bound Britain, northern Gaul, and the Rhineland together during the late-Roman period into a single economic zone, collapsed in the early fifth century. By the second half of the fifth century, however, archaeological evidence suggests that new trans-sea networks of exchange were beginning to emerge, which stretched across the Channel and the North Sea and from western Francia to the Irish Sea. The people, places, and goods entangled in these new networks were different from those of the Roman period, and the scale of exchange was much smaller. Franks would be important players in both western Britain and eastern lowland Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, but their roles in the two zones were very different.
Rural Life and Work in Northern Gaul During the Early Middle ages
Authors: Peytremann Edith
Published: October 2020

The study of the Merovingian landscape allows us to distinguish two important steps in the transformation of the countryside that followed the end of the Roman Empire. The first, which extended from the end of the fifth to the mid-seventh century, attests to three different forms of land use in the countryside transformed by human occupation. It consisted of dispersed habitations that were sometimes located in the immediate proximity of an ancient settlement, a semi-grouped settlement in a loose organization, and finally a more densely organized grouped settlement. This first stage marked the return to construction largely in wood and earth, with characteristic architectural types such as sunken huts. Beyond agricultural activity, rural settlements provide evidence of artisanal activity such as metallurgy. Many changes characterized the second developmental stage (mid-seventh to late eighth century), which marked the end of antiquity. Land distribution was modified, and grouped habitation became the predominant form of settlement. Settlements were organized more clearly, and sometimes sections were specially reserved for artisanal or agricultural activities. It is during this period that religious structures and/or funerary structures were created among the settlements and cemeteries. Some modifications in construction were equally perceptible. The organization of artisanal and agricultural production also saw important changes.
Long-Distance Trade and the Rural Population of Northern Gaul
Authors: Theuws Frans
Published: October 2020

There are good reasons to consider northern Gaul a peripheral area of the Roman Empire in late antiquity (300–450). Its landscape of villas had to a large extent disappeared, and its towns had shrunk to insignificance. The emperor in Trier upheld a façade of well-being for the town and its immediate hinterland, but that façade likewise crumbled when he departed. Toward the mid-fifth century, no one would have believed the prophecy that by the mid-eighth century, all of Gaul would be part of an empire with its center in this northern periphery. What happened? By the mid-sixth century, northern Gaul seems to have experienced astonishing economic development. This change can be deduced from the flourishing vici (rural centers) in the Meuse Valley as well as from the wealth present in rural communities. Their cemeteries, which are now known in the thousands, were filled with objects from regional workshops and workshops at the other end of the former Roman Empire and beyond. The rural population’s demand for nonlocal products must have developed very quickly due to changing ritual repertoires and demographic growth revealed in evidence for the colonization of many areas and the creation of many new cemeteries. While the big question regarding which agents were responsible for this economic growth and recovery has been discussed for a long time, the importance of the rural population’s demand in a quantitative sense has not been considered a critical factor. In this chapter, I suggest that it was indeed critical.
Two Centuries of Excavating Merovingian-Era Cemeteries In France
Authors: Effros Bonnie
Published: October 2020

The excavation of Merovingian-period cemeteries in France began in earnest in the 1830s spurred by industrialization, the creation of many new antiquarian societies across the country, and French nationalism. However, the professionalization of the discipline of archaeology occurred slowly due to the lack of formal training in France, weak legal protections for antiquities, and insufficient state funding for archaeological endeavors. This chapter identifies the implications of the central place occupied by cemeterial excavations up until the mid-twentieth century and its impact on broader discussions in France of national origins and ethnic identity. In more recent years, with the creation of archaeological agencies such as Afan and Inrap, the central place once occupied by grave remains has been diminished. Rescue excavations and private funding for new structures have brought about a shift to other priorities and research questions, with both positive and negative consequences, though cemeteries remain an important source of evidence for our understanding of Merovingian society.
God in the Book of Revelation
Authors: Karrer Martin
Published: October 2020

This chapter considers the significance of Revelation’s statements about God in relation to the writer’s interreligious cultural context: Revelation presents the one God of Israel as the universal God in a visionary and yet highly reflective way. The author knows early impulses of the Merkabah as well as apocalyptic thought. He adapts Jewish traditions about the name of God, such as the Tetragrammaton and Kyrios, and elaborates well-known designations of God, including He who is, the Creator, Iaō and AŌ, Father, and Pantokratōr. By doing so, Revelation engages in competition with Greco-Roman religions. The author touches motifs of Greco-Roman thought, such as the “Dreizeitenformel,” and popular religious life, including magic. In the visionary narrative God is presented as the enthroned one, who is unique over against foreign gods, and is known for his saving and judging. The one God outdoes the gods of Olympus, Zeus (Rev 4:1-11) and Apollo (9:11), and he overcomes the gods of the Underworld (1:17–18; 6:8). The might and grace of God are not balanced unambiguously. Nevertheless, Revelation’s conception of God is highly important for theology and interreligious reflection.
The City-Women Babylon and New Jerusalem in Revelation
Authors: Huber Lynn R.
Published: October 2020

The chapter reviews the interpretation of the visions of Babylon and new Jerusalem by scholars working from feminist and womanist perspectives and queer theory. Attention is given to the ways in which cities and nations were personified in art from the Roman period and the implications of personification for the city-women portrayed in Revelation. The portrayal of Babylon as a prostitute draws on a wide range of associations from antiquity, which enables the imagery in Revelation to critique the Roman order and call upon readers to dissociate themselves from it. By way of contrast, the image of new Jerusalem as a bride and wife evokes different connotations, and enables the personified city to shape readers’ sense of what it means to be people of God.
Revelation and the New Testament Canon
Authors: Nicklas Tobias
Published: October 2020

This chapter first considers the historical path by which Revelation was accepted as part of the New Testament canon. The various perspectives on the book in eastern and western Christianity are noted, showing greater diversity than is sometimes thought. Second, attention is given to way patterns of interpretation in antiquity and the modern period have shaped the actual function of Revelation as a canonical text. Third, the chapter explores Revelation’s possible theological value within the New Testament and the Bible as a whole.
Feminist Interpretation of Revelation
Authors: Hylen Susan E.
Published: October 2020

This chapter highlights the shape of feminist conversations about the book of Revelation that have taken place in recent decades. For a number of years Tina Pippin, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, and other scholars debated whether women could read Revelation as liberating. In reading the image of the whore of Babylon in Revelation 17–18, for example, Schüssler Fiorenza asserted that the imagery functioned as a critique of the Roman Empire’s power. Pippin argued that the violence created a hostile environment for women. These scholars made different choices about the use of ancient historical research. More recent feminist interpreters embrace the possibility of multiple meanings of Revelation. Drawing on metaphor, postcolonial, and queer theories, they emphasize rather than resolve tensions in Revelation’s language and imagery, and they point to the varied choices made by women readers of the book.
The Hymns in Revelation
Authors: Jeffcoat Schedtler Justin P.
Published: October 2020

The hymns in Revelation are one of the primary vehicles through which the author makes theological, Christological, and soteriological claims. This chapter explores the formal and functional characteristics of ancient hymns, giving special attention to hymnic form and performance in early Judaism and Christianity. It considers the contents of each of Revelation’s hymns, their significance within the literary structure of Revelation, and the extent to which they provide theological and Christological commentary on the surrounding visions. Hymnic themes include the sovereignty of God and the vice-regency of the Lamb, which function as implicit claims against Roman imperial rule, and emphasize the writer’s anti-imperial stance.
Cultivating Meaningful Personal Learning Networks in an Era of Multimodal and Globalized Music Learning and Education
Authors: Peluso Deanna C. C.
Published: October 2020

A continual ebb and flow of technological progressions provide diverse contexts in which music learning, participation, and education can occur. Youth are deeply immersed within a culture of globalized and multimodal knowledge-sharing, through which music learning occurs within formal, nonformal, and informal contexts, both in the physical and online worlds. These interconnected environments provide learners with a diverse collection of tools and resources that enable them to take charge of their own musical learning. Further, they can connect and share with other learners, educators, and experts through their own digitally mediated personal learning networks (PLNs). In these PLNs, extensive repertoires of formal music education combined with informal music learning practices that provide self-directed forums for musical experiences can enable music learners to flourish and adapt to globalized and diverse contexts. Learners cultivate, in their own personally relevant ways, networks of musical knowledge by drawing on the resources and tools available both on- and offline. By examining PLNs supported by multimodal social media resources as well as online forums for sharing and exploring music knowledge, this chapter presents practical examples and applications to inform music educators and classroom practices.
Isaiah in Greek
Authors: Ngunga Abi T.
Published: October 2020

This chapter begins by looking at the setting from which the book of Isaiah in Greek first emerged, as well as at the date of its translation, the author behind it, and the maneuvers used in producing it. It then focuses on the various editions of the text and the manuscripts that witness to it. It surveys not only how the research, past and present, has approached this text, but also how this translation has been interpreted in select early Jewish and Christian writings. The chapter also highlights important areas of research that so far remain untouched or await further exploration. The analysis of the history of reception and interpretation of this translation, for instance, sheds light on the hermeneutics employed by the New Testament, as well as on the doctrines that influenced the history of theology. In the end, the chapter calls for more studies being undertaken to explore how Christian writers have employed the Greek Isaiah. Such investigations might yield startling results concerning the principles or the doctrinal motives that guided their exegesis and interpretation, and how the Greek Isaiah was relevant in various cultural contexts, starting with the community from which it first arose.
Reading Isaiah in Asia
Authors: Low Maggie
Published: October 2020

This chapter discusses four areas of interaction between the book of Isaiah and the author’s context as a Chinese Singaporean woman. First, the Asian emphasis on the family underscores the fatherhood of God in Isaiah, while Isaiah’s depiction of God’s fatherly grace is a model for the Asian family. Secondly, Isaiah’s maternal imagery of God provides a corrective to Confucian patriarchy in a complementary rather than combative way. Thirdly, Isaiah’s favorite title for God as “the Holy One” fits in with Asia’s religious context, but the relational aspect of the Holy One “of Israel” reveals the personal nature of the Divine. Fourthly, Isaiah’s monotheistic faith challenges Singapore’s pluralistic society, but the universal message of the Suffering Servant crosses boundaries for the good of all.
From Emancipation to Independence
Authors: Breña Roberto
Published: October 2020

The Viceroyalty of New Spain went from being the richest of the territories of the Spanish Crown in America to become Mexico, one of the new countries that emerged from the crumbling of the Spanish empire in the American continent. It was a very complex process. It did not start as an independence movement; it was extremely violent in its first phase and, paradoxically, the new nation obtained independence in 1821 in an eminently consensual way and with a document containing an article that offered the crown to none other than Fernando VII, the Spanish king. The process also evinced significant differences when compared with other processes of independence that occurred in Spanish America between 1810 and 1824. While the first two sections of the present chapter deal with its different phases and with the aforementioned differences, the third is devoted to several historiographic issues that are important to understand some of the protagonists, events, and complexities of the Mexican independence movement. These issues are still present in contemporary debates regarding the political, military, and social process that gave birth to Mexico.
Reimagining Race and Language
Authors: Rosa Jonathan , Flores Nelson
Published: October 2020

This chapter presents a raciolinguistic perspective, which theorizes the historical and contemporary co-naturalization of language and race. Rather than taking for granted existing categories for parsing and classifying race and language, the chapter explores how and why these categories have been co-naturalized and imagines their denaturalization as part of a broader structural project of contesting white supremacy. The chapter explores five key components of a raciolinguistic perspective: (1) historical and contemporary colonial co-naturalizations of race and language; (2) perceptions of racial and linguistic difference; (3) regimentations of racial and linguistic categories; (4) racial and linguistic intersections and assemblages; and (5) contestation of racial and linguistic power formations. These foci reflect an investment in developing a careful theorization of various forms of racial and linguistic inequality, on the one hand, and a commitment to the imagination and creation of more just societies on the other.
The Linguistic Intimacy of Five Continents
Authors: McElhinny Bonnie , Heller Monica
Published: October 2020

This chapter elaborates work by Edward Said on comparative linguistics in embedding a history of linguistic study in histories of colonialism and capitalism. We look at three late nineteenth and early twentieth century challenges to comparative linguistics: evolutionary linguistics, which elaborated and sharpened ideas of racialized difference on the grounds of biology; the study of pidgins and creoles which challenges notions of “hybridity” and thus certain ideas of racial distinction; and Boasian approaches focusing on culture, which only critiques certain aspects of racialization. We also consider the ways colonial ideologies of race played out in the pragmatics of imperial rule, in the arena of language and industrial and residential schooling. These schools, which targeted Indigenous and Black bodies, were implemented at the same time that Boas was elaborating the field of anthropology; that they were not subject to critique shows the limits of the Boasian focus on culture as a means of resisting racism.
Punk in Belfast, Northern Ireland: Critical Perspectives on the Troubles and Post-conflict “Peace”
Authors: Donaghey Jim
Published: October 2020

Punk’s resonance has been felt strongly here. Against the backdrop of the Troubles and the “post-conflict” situation in Northern Ireland, punk has provided an anti-sectarian alternative culture. The overarching conflict of the Troubles left gaps for punk to thrive in, as well as providing the impetus for visions of an “Alternative Ulster,” but the stuttering shift from conflict to post-conflict has changed what oppositional identities and cultures look like. With the advent of “peace” (or a particular version of it at least) in the late 1990s, this space is being squeezed out by “development” agendas while counterculture is co-opted and neutered—and all the while sectarianism is further engrained and perpetuated. This chapter examines punk’s positioning within (and against) the conflict-warped terrain of Belfast, especially highlighting punk’s critical counter-narrative to the sectarian, neoliberal “peace.”
John’s Writings and Empire
Authors: Choi Jin Young
Published: October 2020

In contrast to Johannine scholarship’s predominant focus on the religious and spiritual aspects of Johannine literature, empire studies examine the Roman presence in John’s writings or the ways the text negotiates imperial power. These studies generally argue that John employs counter-imperial rhetoric to resist the empire or disrupt accommodationist interactions with imperial power. Since identifying John’s Gospel as a resistant discourse (e.g., high christology) can reinscribe Christian superiority, postcolonial studies pay more attention to the colonial or imperializing rhetoric in John that creates the hierarchical order and marginalization of others. Such postcolonial studies examine power relations at work in the text and in their own geopolitical contexts from a resistant, ambivalent, or decolonial position. This essay suggests that empire-critical and postcolonial studies of John’s writings engage the material matrix of the text and its cultural production, a non-binary mode of interpretation focusing on postcolonial texts borne out of liberation struggles, and intersectional analyses of imperial-(post)colonial formations.
Population Ethics, the Mere Addition Paradox, and the Structure of Consequentialism
Authors: Roberts M. A.
Published: October 2020

In this paper, I describe three structural issues population ethics raises for any form of consequentialism that embraces what we can call the basic maximizing idea, the idea that it makes things better, in a morally relevant sense, to make things better for people. What we say about those structural issues will in turn determine what we say about some of the most challenging problems of population ethics. I explore a handful of our options here, discarding some and leaving others on the table. My primary focus is on how those options propose to resolve the mere addition paradox, a population problem that is important in its own right and whose resolution is defining for what we will want to say about many other population problems.
Conflicts and Cooperation in Act Consequentialism
Authors: Mendola Joseph
Published: October 2020

There are circumstances—involving conjunctive acts at a time or over time or the conjunction of acts of different agents—that threaten act consequentialism with self-defeat. There are also variants of act consequentialism—including consequentialist generalization, generalized act consequentialism, multiple-act consequentialism, cooperative consequentialism, and modally robust act consequentialism—that promise a more plausible treatment of circumstances in which cooperation is important than traditional act consequentialism. Links among these issues are explored. Attention to the nature of the normative conflicts occasioned by consequentialist assessment of actions can help reveal an important and useful variety of forms of, and resources for, act consequentialism. Its structure is not as simple as it may initially seem.
Fault Lines in Ethical Theory
Authors: Nair Shyam
Published: October 2020

The verdicts that standard consequentialism gives about what we are obligated to do crucially depend on what theory of value the consequentialist accepts. This makes it hard to say what separates standard consequentialist theories from nonconsequentialist theories. This article discusses how we can draw sharp lines separating standard consequentialist theories from other theories and what assumptions about goodness we must make in order to draw these lines. The discussion touches on cases of deontic constraints, cases of deontic options, and cases involved in the so-called actualism/possibilism debate. What emerges is that there are various interesting patterns relating the different commitments of consequentialism, different principles about obligation and about goodness, and different rules concerning how facts about values determine facts about obligation.
Local People and Global Goings-On
Authors: Moore Sally Falk
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines the local development of global legal pluralism by looking at the history of the rural Chagga population of Mount Kilimanjaro. The Chagga were once a relatively remote African people without modern amenities, running water, or electricity, possessing only a subsistence economy. Today, the Chagga society has been integrated with the world. Several confluent grand-scale matters emerge in the account of the growth of Chagga translocal connections. A global perspective on these many separate changes enables one to see them together as having a cumulative effect. Beginning with a low-intensity trading connection with the coast that had its own rules of engagement, continuing with colonial contacts, the involvement with coffee commerce, and the introduction of more and more education, the story ends with a huge, nationally legislated program of government which is part of a legally plural world. Indeed, cumulative long-term change in the direction of globalization came about on Kilimanjaro through many particular occurrences. Globalization is not a simple unitary phenomenon; as a process, it can start in many ways and have many different consequences.