bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Giant Snakes and Tiny Seabirds on a Small Japanese Island
Authors: Hasegawa Masami , Mori Akira
Published: November 2023

The Izu Island Archipelago, a chain of volcanic islands off the coast of Japan, near Tokyo, provides opportunities to examine body size evolution in snakes related to their diets. Elaphe quadrivirgata, the most widespread and abundant snake of the Izu Islands, preys mainly on the lizard Plestiodon latiscutatus. However, on Tadanae Island, E. quadrivirgata is gigantic—not because of rapid juvenile growth, but rather because of pronged, continuous, and enhanced growth throughout adulthood through feeding on the eggs and chicks of sea birds. Large body size in addition to evolutionary modifications of the trophic apparatus and allometry of gape size enables the consumption of large bird eggs. The terrestrial, insular food web is ultimately tied to rich marine food webs via enhanced prey availability of seabirds, wherein complex species interactions among small pelagic fishes, seabirds, and large carnivorous fishes have occurred in relation to long-term dynamics of physical and biological oceanographic processes.
Distribution Patterns of Snakes and Conservation Importance of Islands in the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago, Bay of Bengal, India
Authors: Chandramouli S. R
Published: November 2023

Island ecosystems are interesting models for studying patterns of species distribution. Especially in cases of organisms that generally have limited abilities for transoceanic dispersal, such as reptiles and amphibians, studying their geographic distribution is vital for an accurate assessment of their conservation status. Herein, snake faunas of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are relatively poorly known in the Southeast Asian region, are analyzed based on field surveys and verified literature sources to identify potentially vulnerable species or unique islands. Thirty-eight species of snakes occur in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, with 22 from the Andaman Islands and 23 from the Nicobar Islands. Species richness ranged from 1 to 19 in the Andamans and 5 to 12 in the Nicobars. The distribution of endemic species is compared to the existing protected areas in the archipelago, and the northern and central Nicobar Islands are identified as regions that potentially need additional protection.
Natural History and Conservation of the Galapagos Snake Radiation
Authors: Cisneros-Heredia Diego F , Reyes-Puig Carolina
Published: November 2023

The Galapagos Archipelago has been world-famous since Darwin’s visit and is recognized for its species radiation and high levels of endemism. However, Galapagos snakes of the genus Pseudalsophis remained poorly known until recently. The taxonomy of this snake radiation was in turmoil until 2018, when nine species were recognized and its origin and evolutionary history were better explained. In this chapter, the authors present a review of the taxonomy, natural history, and conservation of these snakes, which have been isolated in the Galapagos for at least 4 million years. They propose recognizing Pseudalsophis eibli for the San Cristobal Island Snake, separated from P. biserialis from Floreana Island and surrounding islets. Based on literature and their own data, the authors list 40 prey and 19 predatory taxa interacting with Galapagos snakes. Invasive species, especially mammals, and road mortality are among the more serious threats to the conservation of snakes, especially on populated islands.
Golem Grad
Authors: Bonnet Xavier , Arsovski Dragan , Golubović Ana , Tomović Ljiljana
Published: November 2023

Golem Grad is a small island situated in montane Prespa Lake, North Macedonia. Rock crevices, shrubs, and trees provide microhabitats favorable to reptiles. Ruins of old buildings from past centuries offer abundant shelters. Prespa Lake ecosystems have been spared from industrial agriculture and urbanization, and, for these reasons, Golem Grad hosts large populations of Hermann Tortoise (Testudo hermanni), Common Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis), Nose-horned Viper (Vipera ammodytes), and amphibious Dice Snake (Natrix tessellata). These species also occur on the nearby mainland and in Eastern Europe. Compared with continental populations, the insular vipers are dwarf while insular Dice Snakes exhibit a trend to gigantism. Low-quality food resources (e.g., centipedes) may limit the growth and fecundity of vipers, whereas Dice Snakes benefit from high-quality prey (large schools of fish) that may promote large body size and sustain large populations. Hence, both dwarf and very large snake populations cohabit on Golem Grad.
The Resilient Clinician
Authors: Wicks Robert J. , Werdel Mary Beth
Published: November 2023

The post-COVID landscape has unearthed a mental health epidemic in the United States that suggests many people are struggling with anxiety, depression, addiction, trauma, grief, and fear. Perhaps now more than ever, wise, compassionate, grounded clinicians are needed to accompany children, adolescents, adults, groups, couples, and families through challenging life experiences. However, with the increase in care needed, mental health clinicians are at increased risk of experiencing compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. This book is an updated, much needed concise guide to preventing and limiting acute and chronic secondary stress in mental health professionals and encouraging and expanding experiences of resiliency, self-awareness, mindfulness, and growth. Informed by positive psychology and infused with compassion and wisdom, this book will encourage clinicians to find, nurture, and maintain the sense of deep perspective needed to be professionally useful and that leads to personal growth.
Enhancing Resiliency
Authors: Wicks Robert J. , Werdel Mary Beth
Published: November 2023

This chapter outlines how care must be taken to encourage, foster, and maintain a sense of inner resiliency. The self-care protocol is introduced as a tool to enhance resiliency. While some clinicians have a self-care protocol, many do not and others who do may not use one regularly. This chapter seeks to improve the quality of and commitment to the use of a clinician’s self-care protocol. The chapter discusses the essential elements of a self-care protocol, the questions to ponder in the development of a meaningful self-care protocol, and the importance of time management in committing to the regular use of a self-care protocol, and it gives examples of useful components in self-care protocols.
Resiliency in the Era of Tele Mental Health
Authors: Wicks Robert J. , Werdel Mary Beth
Published: November 2023

Telehealth services have ushered in a new, post-COVID reality in mental health care. While telehealth is helpful to clinicians and clients alike due to the flexibility it provides in terms of scheduling, there are also risks that it presents to clinician’s well-being and perspective. Because many clinicians use personal spaces such as bedrooms, closets, and bathrooms to meet clients online, the pervasiveness of the work can be a challenge to the clinician’s own well-being. In this chapter, the emerging literature on the risks and benefits of telehealth services as they are related to the boundaries of work–life is examined, and strategies are suggested to encourage resiliency in this new telehealth, two-dimensional world.
Resilience from a Systems Perspective
Authors: Wicks Robert J. , Werdel Mary Beth
Published: November 2023

This chapter explores the ideas of resiliency and burnout beyond the individual level. On an individual level, it is known that longevity in the field and a commitment to fostering a perspective of wonder and openness allows one to gain wisdom. On the other hand, longevity in the field and fostering a perspective of knowing it all and a sense of closedness results in burnout. However sometimes even when an individual makes the seemingly best choices, the systems they are living and working in move against them. Without systems of compassion, one’s passion may become the fuel that fires burnout itself. Tools are needed to identify, manage, and change systems that push against clinicians’ passions to support the psychological needs of clients.
Clinician
Authors: Wicks Robert J. , Werdel Mary Beth
Published: November 2023

This final chapter seeks to pull the themes of clinician self awareness, meaning in life, wisdom, mindfulness practices, and growth together to suggest that resilience is a practices that needs constant attention in a clinicians’ practice. With care and attention, with self-awareness and mindfulness practices, a clinician may have a long and meaningful profession.
Why Do Evangelicals Support Israel? (with M. Gordon Byrd)
Authors: Inbari Motti , Bumin Kirill
Published: November 2023

In this chapter, we present our first survey which was fielded in April 2018. The analysis shows that evangelical support for Israel is driven by respondents’ beliefs rooted in evangelical Christian theology and by their feeling of cultural and religious affinity with Jews, rather than geopolitical/security concerns, feelings of guilt for historical persecution of Jews at the hands of Christians, or feeling of commonality based on political/democratic institutions. However, and counter to other studies which argue that evangelical support for Israel is driven predominantly by religious beliefs rooted in evangelical eschatology and biblical literalism, our results show that the three most robust predictors of support for Israel are not religious and include the respondent’s age, opinion of Jews, and socialization (frequency of hearing other evangelicals talking about Israel). This chapter provides the first confirmatory evidence that there are significant differences in pro-Israel sentiment among under-30 and older evangelicals.
Analyzing Replacement Theology
Authors: Inbari Motti , Bumin Kirill
Published: November 2023

Chapter 3 analyzes data from a survey conducted in 2020 among a nationally representative sample of evangelical pastors. We show that there are significant theological and eschatological differences among evangelical pastors which are likely to have direct implications on their current foreign policy views, and especially on their support for the State of Israel. Our statistical analysis illustrates that certain evangelical denominations are significantly more supportive of supersessionism, a belief that the Church replaced the nation of Israel with God’s blessings, and, by proxy, less supportive of Israel than others. We find that the proponents of amillennial and premillennial eschatological views have diametrically opposite opinions on the role of the Jewish people and Israel in the End of Days. We also find that pastors of the postmillennial and amillennial persuasions are more ethnically and racially diverse and younger than the now-dominant but more racially homogenous and older premillennial group of evangelical leaders.
Conclusion
Authors: Inbari Motti , Bumin Kirill
Published: November 2023

The conclusion synthesizes our findings. One of the strongest predictors of evangelicals’ support toward Israel is age; older evangelicals strongly support Israel, while under-30 respondents repeatedly exhibited the lowest levels of support. Our survey data repeatedly show that frequent church attendance significantly increases support for Israel and that the attitudes toward Israel consistently vary with the political worldview of the respondents, with Republicans more supportive than Democrats. The declining popularity of premillennial eschatology exerts a powerful, negative effect on support for Israel among evangelicals, especially those under 30. Nevertheless, evangelical support for Israel is still strongly tethered to theology. Most significant religious rationalization for the support for Israel among all evangelical age groups centers on the Abrahamic covenant, according to which the nation of Israel is the direct descendant of Abraham and thus entitled to heavenly blessings and a specific territory given to them by God.
Introduction
Authors: Douglas Heather , Fitz-Gibbon Kate , Goodmark Leigh , Walklate Sandra
Published: November 2023

The role of criminalization as a response to violence against women is contested across the globe. This introductory chapter considers two key debates about criminalization of violence against women: the effects and consequences of the introduction of an offense of coercive control and the use of imprisonment as a response to such violence. Against this background, this chapter outlines the broader themes addressed by the contributors in this collection. These themes include how criminalization is being used in new ways to deal with both long-recognized and emerging forms of violence against women, the role of women generally and victim-survivors particularly in articulating the kind of justice they want, understanding who bears the greatest burden as a result of criminalization, and whether human rights instruments and the state can deliver justice to women.
United States v. Maddesyn George
Authors: Goodmark Leigh
Published: November 2023

In 2021, Maddesyn George, an enrolled member of the Colville Native tribe in the United States, killed Kristopher Graber, who had raped her the night before his death. Using George’s prosecution as a case study, this chapter explores the questions that prosecution raises about the history of abuse of Native women by non-Native men in the United States, the law that prevents Native tribes from holding those men accountable, and the U.S.’ reliance on criminalization as a response to intimate partner violence. The chapter argues that Maddesyn George was an imperfect victim facing a criminal system that was not designed to protect her, and as a result, she was punished for acting to save her own life.
The Consequences of Criminalizing Domestic Violence
Authors: Douglas Heather , Fitzgerald Robin
Published: November 2023

Discrete offenses of nonfatal strangulation have been introduced throughout America, England, and Wales and Australia over the past 20 years. This chapter focuses on the offense of nonfatal strangulation introduced in the Australian state of Queensland. Many have viewed the introduction of this offense as a success in educating the public about the harms of nonfatal strangulation, ensuring nonfatal strangulation is taken seriously and ensuring that domestic violence abusers are held accountable. The chapter draws on recent reviews of the operation of the offense, highlighting some of the troubling, but predictable, consequences of criminalizing nonfatal strangulation. These consequences flow to victims and offenders and are most evident for marginalized members of the community, including children. It is argued in the chapter that there is a need for an approach that breaks the link between criminalization and incarceration so the criminal law response can be a more valuable and nuanced part of a holistic response to domestic violence.
Bureaucratic Violence
Authors: Jones Balawyn
Published: November 2023

This chapter explains a theory of bureaucratic violence against victims of domestic and family violence (DFV) that analyzes the state’s roles and responsibilities to DFV victims in implementing the Indonesian Law on the Elimination of Domestic Violence (the law). I argue that based on victim rights established under the law and the correlative responsibilities of the state, the failure of the state to fulfill its obligations is not a type of “neutral negligence” but results in specific types of harm for DFV victims (i.e., an exacerbated and/or perpetuated risk of DFV). It is argued that the harm experienced by victims attributable to bureaucratic negligence is, in itself, a distinct type of structural violence for which the state should be held accountable. Examples are provided of bureaucratic violence from fieldwork conducted in Aceh, Indonesia, namely the state’s failure to establish operational safe houses for DFV victims and rehabilitation programs for perpetrators of DFV as required under the law.
Reclaiming Justice
Authors: Menon Niveditha
Published: November 2023

This chapter expands on the idea of justice by examining the relationship between the state, the family, and the notions of justice through two specific frameworks. The first is through the phenomenon of “missing women,” wherein the police actively seek and “return” women to their violent families from whom they have escaped. The second is through the institutionalization of informal women’s courts, which have been used by collectives to create pathways to alternate forms of justice more amenable to women. In comparing these two practices—one that circumvents justice and the other that provides alternatives—the manner is revisited in which criminalization and codification of violence fossilizes only certain forms of violence, thereby restricting the ways by which larger frameworks of justice can cater to, draw from, and are informed by what women want.
Introduction
Authors: Salem Joseph
Published: November 2023

This introduction outlines motivations for the research and includes a brief discussion of the book’s three-part structure. The second half of the introduction provides a short primer on Boulez’s sketch procedures—including his use of dodecaphonic and serial methods—for readers unfamiliar with Boulez’s scores and compositional strategies. Here and elsewhere, visual examples from his sketches help to demonstrate musical points without a strong dependency on technical language or score analysis. Nonetheless, this primer is an important foundation for understanding subsequent discussions of Boulez’s compositional process throughout the book. Although most chapters and examples are not technically demanding, readers less comfortable with serial practices are encouraged to refer to the primer to contextualize sketch examples and their place in Boulez’s creative process.
From Pianist to Composer
Authors: Salem Joseph
Published: November 2023

Chapter 1 begins with a cursory review of Boulez’s childhood circumstances starting in his hometown of Montbrison. Although brief, this overview highlights the limited primary sources and extant biographies on the composer, as well as how these resources have guided prior scholarship. Boulez’s own resistance to biographical treatments is also considered. The chapter includes relevant background information on Boulez’s training as a pianist and his educational transition to Saint-Étienne, Lyon, and Paris, as well as how differences between his experiences in southern and northern France may have influenced his musical development. Speculations are made regarding his social experiences during the occupation.
Conventional Titles, Unconventional Forms
Authors: Salem Joseph
Published: November 2023

This four-part chapter cites Boulez’s earliest public compositions, including his Sonatine for flute and piano, his first two piano sonatas, and his first two cantatas. These compositions are connected to a second round of mentors and early writings, including René Char, André Schaeffner, Boris de Schloezer, André Souris, and Pierre Souvtchinsky. These figures and the trends they represent provoke considerations of Boulez’s connections to structuralism and surrealism as convenient but conflicting lenses through which to view his works. Building on the previous chapter, Boulez’s public voice as a composer, performer, and writer is situated among an increasingly diverse network of influences.
Other Theatrics
Authors: Salem Joseph
Published: November 2023

This chapter begins with a significant discussion of Boulez’s work in the theater and its impact on his compositional development. Boulez’s duties as music director of the Jean-Louis Barrault Madeleine Renault theatre company and the Domaine musical facilitated his first world travels, his interest in world music, and the beginnings of his lifelong commitment to music direction. The discussion then turns to Le Marteau sans maître. Marteau is well-documented in Boulez’s correspondence during his tours with the theatre company, and some aspects of the score are suggestive of his first attempts at incorporating the influence of non-Western instruments he heard while abroad. In addition, his use of a new compositional method in Marteau—his blocs sonores—was a major innovation that helped him move beyond his early struggles with integral serialism. The chapter closes with a short consideration of the Darmstadt summer music courses and their limited relevance for Boulez’s pre-1955 compositions.
Competing Trajectories
Authors: Salem Joseph
Published: November 2023

Chapter 7 begins with an acknowledgement of how Boulez’s blocs sonores fostered a radical shift in his productivity and experimentalism during a period of increasing competition with other composers in the late 1950s. The chapter is divided into three parts dedicated to L’Orestie; Structures, Book 2; and the Third Piano Sonata, respectively. Each composition is introduced as a particular exploitation of blocs sonores that aligns with more or less rigid approaches to serialism. Sketches articulate important differences in Boulez’s use of serial techniques among the trio to clarify how each would come to represent competing experimental trajectories through the early 1960s.
Scottish Debates about Slavery and Race
Authors: Jorati Julia
Published: November 2023

This chapter explores philosophical debates about slavery and race in eighteenth-century Scotland by focusing on eight particularly important authors: Gershom Carmichael, Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Adam Ferguson, George Wallace, James Beattie, James Dunbar, and James Ramsay. The last four of these authors discuss transatlantic slavery in depth and provide innovative and compelling arguments against it. In contrast, the first four authors mention it only in passing but theorize about slavery in general—and in some cases about race—in notable ways. David Hume is important for an additional reason: he expresses deeply racist ideas that had a significant impact on the history of racism.
Francophone Debates about Slavery and Race
Authors: Jorati Julia
Published: November 2023

France and its colonies were host to many philosophically important debates about slavery and race in the eighteenth century. This chapter focuses on a small number of authors: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, a few contributors to Diderot and D’Alembert’s Encyclopedia, Raynal, Diderot, Pechméja, Condorcet, and Gouges. One thing that will become clear is that some French authors were far less radical in their opposition to transatlantic slavery than one might expect, given their reputation as freethinkers or as champions of liberty and equality. While many of them criticize slavery in a general or theoretical respect, some are either silent about transatlantic slavery or appear unconcerned by it. Of the authors examined in this chapter, only Diderot, Pechméja, and perhaps Condorcet express the type of staunch antislavery stance that one would expect.
Dutch and German Debates about Slavery and Race
Authors: Jorati Julia
Published: November 2023

This chapter examines eighteenth-century debates about slavery and race in the Netherlands and Germany by focusing on one Dutch author and one German author, along with relevant context. The first author is Black Dutch-African philosopher Jacobus Elisa Johannes Capitein. He is important because in addition to defending the compatibility of slavery and Christianity, he provides an intriguing and original argument against natural slavery, or the doctrine that some human beings are destined for slavery on the basis of inferior natural capacities. The second author is White German philosopher Immanuel Kant. He is significant in part because he flirts with natural slavery in some texts and endorses paradigmatically racist claims. Kant says surprisingly little about transatlantic slavery, and much of what he says is ambiguous. While he theorizes about slavery and argues that most forms are illicit, he apparently did not view the transatlantic slave trade as an important moral issue.
Like a Tree Universally Spread
Authors: Cantú Keith Edward
Published: November 2023

This book reconstructs the tantalizing tale of Sri Sabhapati Swami (ca. 1828–1923/4), today a little-known swami who was originally from Tamil Nadu in southern India, and historically contextualizes a fascinating type of yoga that Sabhapati claimed would lead to an experience of being “like a tree universally spread.” The practical method of having this experience, in technical terms called the samādhi or “composure” of Śivarājayoga or the “royal yoga for Shiva,” was published in English and multiple Indic languages and lavishly illustrated in diagrams on subtle and physical bodies. This book is the first book-length treatment on Sabhapati Swami, scholarly or otherwise, and uses critically edited sources printed in Tamil, Devanagari, and Bengali scripts to reveal the expansion of his literature across South Asia and globally, the vast majority of which has never before been considered in any scholarly work to date. The book shows how intertwined Sabhapati’s yoga is with historical Tamil Saiva and Siddha movements, including the mythos of the rishi Agastya, and also with hatha yoga and mantra-based ritual. It also takes into account his and his followers’ wrestling with the Victorian scientific worldview and their rationalization of Hindu philosophical discourses in the colonial period. Finally, the book demonstrates the extent to which Sabhapati’s teachings were integrated into esoteric religious movements such as the Theosophical Society, the Thelema of Aleister Crowley, and New Thought, and suggests that a reappraisal of scholarship on the roots of yoga in these movements is long overdue.
A Vast Forest of Printed Words
Authors: Cantú Keith Edward
Published: November 2023

This chapter presents a detailed analysis of Sabhapati’s printed literature, bibliographic records of which span translations into English, Hindustani, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and Urdu. The chapter begins by considering various textual “stemmata” of Sabhapati’s work, the vernacular-language dimensions of which have never been previously considered by scholars. As a result, the chapter argues for the usefulness of a basic kind of text-critical method to better understand the various connections between Sabhapati’s literature and reception history. The three stemmata are then treated in depth, beginning with the Alpha Stemma of Sabhapati’s works in English with Sanskrit transliterations, the Beta Stemma of Sabhapati’s work in Hindustani, and the Gamma Stemma of his work for Tamil readers.
Aguda
Authors: Dynner Glenn
Published: November 2023

As the Hasidic mobilization of formal Torah education was as much a political endeavor as a spiritual and intellectual one, several Hasidic leaders went so far as to become formal politicians and activists on behalf of Torah education, most prominently under the auspices of Aguda. Representatives of Aguda served as city councilmen, Kehillah presidents, senators, and Sejm deputies. So high was the party’s profile that Polish officials often considered Aguda to be synonymous with “Orthodoxy.” Aguda’s perceived loyalty to the regime, in contrast to most other Jewish parties, bore fruit during communal elections and helped preserve its educational institutions. Aguda’s influence was further enhanced by the Orthodox press, “Great Assemblies,” and affiliated worker and youth groups. As a result of that influence, the political party began to supplant the intercessor (shtadlan) of old as the Hasidic community’s main advocate.
New Data and New Insights
Authors: Stinson Russell
Published: November 2023

This chapter consists of ten case studies in the reception of Bach’s organ music over the past two hundred years. It explores how Bach, through his organ works, was given his rightful place in music history after being ignored for the fifty years after his death. A wide variety of books, articles, editions, transcriptions, and recordings (especially the magnificent compilation known as Bach 333) are taken into account. The dramatis personae include such historical figures as Albert Schweitzer and Cosima Wagner, and many of the leading organists, pianists, and conductors active today. The performance venues include some of the most famous churches and concert halls in the world.
Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen
Authors: Brock Clare R.
Published: November 2023

Chapter 1 highlights important moments in the history of food and agriculture policy in the United States, then chronicles the slow breakdown of bipartisanship on US agricultural policy over the last two decades. It particularly focuses on the aftermath of the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, followed by the dramatic 2013 attempt to write a secret farm bill. In doing so, the chapter illustrates how drastically the policymaking environment has changed over recent decades and addresses the need for updated theories of policymaking and interest group behavior under these evolving conditions. The chapter concludes with an overview of the subsequent chapters and a preview of the main argument contained in the book.
The (Not Quite) Business as Usual of Washington
Authors: Brock Clare R.
Published: November 2023

Chapter 4 looks at changes in food and agricultural corporate lobbying behavior over a twenty-year span to establish a pattern of changing behavior. Even as corporations are some of the most vilified actors in politics, they also are the most active in lobbying. Additionally, a fair amount of information about corporations is publicly available, allowing for more detailed analysis than is possible with other types of groups. Chapter 4 finds that the increase in polarization over the past twenty years has had a profound effect on corporate lobbying. Corporate lobbying of Congress has increased even as corporate lobbying levels have remained fairly steady in other venues. When combined with evidence from interviews, it is clear that polarization in Congress is having an important effect on firm lobbying. Corporations appear to be working harder than ever at lobbying Congress to achieve their preferred outcomes.
He Said, She Said
Authors: Brock Clare R.
Published: November 2023

Chapter 6 uses interviews to illustrate how polarization has shifted the role of advocacy groups in American politics. Interviewees describe the agricultural policy arena as an example of cooperation and good process, yet also note that polarization and uncertainty are impacting the political landscape. As members of Congress have become less collegial, lobbyists work harder to act as go-betweens, providing a negotiation subsidy. They form industry coalitions that appeal across the partisan aisle and provide political cover for members of Congress to support emerging compromises. Indeed, coalition building is described as taking up an increasing amount of time for lobbyists, and being increasingly vital to success. These coalitions also provide the groups with political cover; in a coalition they are less likely to be pressed to ideologically affiliate. In short, partisanship is not only increasing the amount of lobbying on Capitol Hill, it is also changing its form.
The Search for System
Authors: Gordley James
Published: November 2023

In the nineteenth century, the common lawyers systematized the law of contract for the first time. Like continental jurists, they explained as much of it as possible in terms of the will of the parties. Their “will theory” was discredited because it could not explain why sometimes the parties are bound by terms that the law reads into their contract which they did not choose, and why sometimes they are not bound by harsh terms to which they agreed. Before the rise of the will theory, continental writers had explained contract law, not in terms of the will alone, but in terms of the purposes that contract serves and the fairness of an exchange. Without those ideas, contract theory became incoherent. With them, one can better explain the American law of contract.
Promises to Make Gifts of Money or Property
Authors: Gordley James
Published: November 2023

Promises to make gifts of money or property are intended to enrich one party at the other’s expense. The rules that govern their enforceability ensure that the promisor wishes to make a legally binding commitment to do so. The promisor may not wish to do so when the promise is subject to inchoate conditions that excuse performance if the promisor’s needs change. Promises to make gifts are enforced when it is unlikely that they are subject to such conditions, for example, when promises are made with a formality, in marriage settlements, which are designed to confer independence on the married couple, and in charitable subscriptions, where the promisor does not expect the promisee to be aware of inchoate conditions. Promises to make gifts should be enforceable when the promisor dies without changing his mind and so any such conditions are never fulfilled. By way of exception, even a promise that is subject to such conditions should be enforceable if the promisor can foresee that the promisee will rely on it, since to refuse to keep it would be to change one’s mind at the promisee’s expense.
Disgorgement of the Value of Benefits Received
Authors: Gordley James
Published: November 2023

Sometimes, the reason for imposing liability is that a party who has been compensated for assuming a risk should bear the consequences. Sometimes the reason is that a party who has conferred a benefit on the other should be compensated. Sometimes a party is required to disgorge a gain that was made possible a gain that was made possible by a breach of contract but which does not consist of a benefit conferred by the other party. The reason is that the party gained by appropriating a benefit to which the other party was exclusively entitled. It does not matter whether the appropriation was conscious, deliberate or wrongful.
Reasons
Authors: Kagan Shelly
Published: November 2023

According to reasons internalism (sometimes called moral rationalism), one always has a reason to do what one is morally required to do. Arguably, this can only be the case if there are categorical reasons—reasons whose existence does not depend on the agent’s particular desires. But many moral skeptics find the very idea of a categorical reason unacceptable. Accordingly, moral realists have to either reject reasons internalism, show how reasons internalism can be true even if all reasons are hypothetical ones (that is, reasons that depend on the agent’s desires), or explain why the existence of categorical reasons shouldn’t be dismissed as especially problematic. The prospects for each alternative are considered.
Moral Realism
Authors: Kagan Shelly
Published: November 2023

Moral realists hold that there are moral facts and that some moral claims are objectively true. This view is supported by intuition, which defeasibly justifies our belief in a wide variety of such facts. To be sure, this justification could be defeated, if there were compelling reason to be skeptical about the very existence of morality, but the survey of skeptical arguments undertaken in this book shows them to be less powerful than one might initially think. This still leaves the task of combining the various intuitions into a systematic moral theory. That’s the job of normative ethics, but there is no compelling reason to hold that it cannot be successfully completed. So moral realism remains an intellectually respectable position, and indeed it is arguably a more plausible position to embrace than moral skepticism.
Political Thought of Xi Jinping
Authors: Tsang Steve , Cheung Olivia
Published: November 2023

Xi Jinping Thought is Xi’s strategic vision that the people of China are required to embrace and follow. As a proto-ideology that is being elevated to the state ideology, it is benchmarked against Mao Zedong Thought. It merges party-centric nationalism, Leninism, Maoism, Legalism, and Confucianism to render socialism Sino-centric. Its emergence began with Xi’s introduction of “the China Dream” in 2012. Since its formal launch in 2017, it has become increasingly interwoven in everyday lives in China, especially through the Xuexi qiangguo App. This book conceptualizes and contextualizes Xi Thought and examines the design and implementation of their corresponding policies. The following working premises are adopted to research Xi Thought: The main goals of the Thought are to strengthen regime security, party supremacy, and to achieve the China Dream. To accomplish them, Xi modifies China’s “consultative Leninist” political system into a Sino-centric consultative Leninist system under his strongman rule.
Reinvigorating the Chinese Communist Party
Authors: Tsang Steve , Cheung Olivia
Published: November 2023

The doctrine of “comprehensively governing the Party strictly” in Xi Thought synthesizes the Liu Shaoqi’s Leninist approach to party-building with Mao Zedong’s ambition for strongman rule, which requires making the Chinese Communist Party his personal instrument. Accordingly, Xi has launched a rectification-cum-anticorruption drive across the Party to punish disobedience. This included forcefully ending the post-Mao convention to accord immunity to members of the Politburo Standing Committee. Selective enforcement of party discipline is justified because Xi Thought prioritizes protecting Xi’s image and status and ensuring loyalty to him over eradicating corruption. To turn the drive into a policy for long-term implementation, all ranks of the Party were subjected to incessant indoctrination of Xi Thought, the powers of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection—the Party’s in-house disciplinary watchdog with wide-reaching extrajudicial powers—were significantly expanded; moreover, the expansive system of intraparty rules and regulations was reinvigorated to centralize powers to Xi.
Thinking Beyond Language
Authors: Congdon Matthew
Published: November 2023

This chapter defends a variation of conceptualism, the view that all meaningful experience is conceptually mediated. The development of new moral concepts, it argues, cannot start from a conceptually schemeless “given,” but from within an existing conceptual inheritance. It outlines a conception of conceptual mediation that is not necessarily discursive or propositional in form, such that conceptually mediated experiences can rupture existing discursive repertoires. It develops this by considering two examples of moral concept development, concerning ‘courage’ and ‘sexual harassment’, respectively. Drawing from Charles Mills and John McDowell, it then argues that conceptualism is not only compatible with, but required for, realism about the content of experience. It argues that ideology critique remains possible without requiring a conceptually schemeless foundation, criticizing an anti-realist pragmatist alternative. Finally, it outlines a notion of epistemically productive dissonance in consciousness raising, drawing from Miranda Fricker, that helps explain the beginning stages of moral articulation.
Changing Our Nature
Authors: Congdon Matthew
Published: November 2023

This chapter argues that a historicized variation of Aristotelian ethical naturalism provides the right normative framework for the theory of moral conceptual change defended in this book. It begins with a characterization of the immutability thesis, which holds that, if objective moral grounds exist, they must be immutable. It provides examples of philosophers committed to this thesis from the early modern period to the present and considers a Kantian argument in its favor. It then argues that the notion of a life-form at work in Aristotelian ethical naturalism offers a framework for defending ethical objectivity while allowing that human nature undergoes historical change, building upon work by Philippa Foot and Michael Thompson. It then draws upon Charles Taylor’s notion of articulation to argue that linguistic and conceptual changes in the ways we articulate the conditions of human flourishing can be understood, in some cases, as transforming those very conditions.
DJ School UK and Beyond
Authors: Reiss Jim
Published: November 2023

This chapter is as an autobiographical synopsis of the author’s journey as a tutor of DJ skills in the U.K. It focuses on the learning he gained, the challenges he faced and the successes achieved. The author is an advocate of the power of DJ equipment and contemporary popular musics (from hip hop to house and far beyond) for inclusion, and strongly believes that DJ skills require a level of skill and musicianship at least equivalent to traditional instruments. Not being a professional writer nor an academic, the author addresses the themes in this book in the first person, focusing on his personal experiences.
Musical Futures and Music Technology in Mainstream Music Education
Authors: Hannan Fran , Ainscough Martin
Published: November 2023

This chapter is written by Fran Hannan and Martin Ainscough, the two current directors of Musical Futures. As a not-for-profit organisation, Musical Futures provides resources, training, and a community of practice with the aim of making music in schools relevant, engaging, and authentic. The ethos of Musical Futures is based upon the work of Lucy Green and her work around informal learning. Fran and Martin begin by reflecting upon their own experiences of music education as learners in order to unpick their own motivations and aspirations for the approaches advocated by Musical Futures and their use within schools. The core focus of the organisation remains centred around the exploration of a pedagogy that places young people at the heart of learning—focused on their music-making and their participatory learning. Musical Futures is student-centred and is about encouraging teachers to think about how their students learn and what they want to learn but most importantly how they learn, as individuals.
Power and Connection
Authors: Rawz
Published: November 2023

A compelling, strengths-based, and practice-oriented story that is intensely personal, but also relates to professional practice both as a service user and service provider; a perspective that recognises the multiple pathways to healing and youth well-being through engaging music provision—this chapter provides specific suggestions that provoke thought around strategic opportunities and identifies key stakeholders to engage for youth well-being. Rawz, a Hip Hop and spoken-word artist from Oxford, England, shares his personal story. We follow from his early experiences as an adolescent and teenager starting to explore creating music independently and at school, to his first forays into collaborating with other artists and sharing his music publicly, to his current career as a full-time freelance musician, poet, and mentor. Through this story we gain an insight into the early life of a young musician and see some of the multitude pitfalls, hypocrisies, and gaps in provision that lead many young artists to give up on the healing power of music and art before they have truly begun.
Becoming a Therapeutic Hip Hop Mentor
Authors: Manley Kiran
Published: November 2023

Becoming a Therapeutic Mentor explores the therapeutic use of Hip Hop as a culturally competent mental health intervention for use in partnership with marginalised communities. The chapter elevates and celebrates the cultural identity and lived experience of the author, who is a researcher, participant, and service-user. The goal is to help raise awareness of the depth and therapeutic potential of Hip Hop culture, and to promote culturally competent helping practices given the inequalities faced by Global Majority people in White Majority countries. It presents a picture of inequality within the United Kingdom through a bricolage of empirical research and autoethnographic writing based on the author’s MSc training in ‘Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes’ (CWTP).
Global Inclusion and Healing Through Therapeutic Beat Making
Authors: Gann Elliot , Crooke Alex H. D.
Published: November 2023

This chapter offers an overview of how community-driven Hip Hop practices can engage people across geographic and generational divides, by harnessing both the well-being benefits of Hip Hop practices, and the importance of community in Hip Hop culture more broadly. The chapter illustrates how organizations such as Today’s Future Sound work across settings to create global opportunities for healing through Hip Hop. By presenting the work of Today’s Future Sound (TFS), as well as the Therapeutic Beat Making (TBM) model, this chapter aims to provide a powerful example of how engaging with Hip Hop culture can lead to personal and community well-being. The chapter demonstrates the value of meeting communities where they are at—by connecting through a globally recognized artform—and actively providing opportunities to celebrate both individual and collective identity. The chapter also provides a sensory approach to engaging in the content—an example of what is possible in the arts and community well-being space through organic and integrated connection with members of the community itself. The examples provided also demonstrate the potential for culturally centered community-arts initiatives to foster connection across generational, cultural and geographical divides.
Evaluating Young People’s Voices in Spoken Word Popular Music Projects
Authors: Peter Beate
Published: November 2023

This chapter is concerned with young people’s voices in spoken word popular music projects. It is argued that for projects that engage young people with and through music, it is important to consider their voice in all its iterations, which includes young people’s artistic voice. Using the concept of voice, this chapter shows how projects need to be designed in a way that captures young people’s voices throughout the project and includes the non-verbal (i.e., musical) dimensions of their voices as forms of communication. Such inclusion necessitates the creation of intersubjective meaning through the negotiation of hierarchies, knowledges, expertise, and agency. As a result of the negotiation process, the role of the researcher can be redefined. By acknowledging the different epistemologies of the project participants, impact beyond the anticipated outcomes can be uncovered. Focusing on participation as an inclusive method, young people should be included in the planning, delivery, and evaluation of projects. Given a certain flexibility and space within projects, unintended outcomes can be identified through and responded to by the young people themselves. This way, impact becomes a phenomenological variable and allows for various forms of data and types of analysis to be used for the evaluation of projects.
Introduction
Authors: Washington Anne L.
Published: November 2023

Everyday life serves as the raw material for meaningful digital patterns, yet predictive data science is obscure to most people. Predictions can also be obscure to those who create them. Only a few executives understand the business models and fiscal priorities that determine what information is available for data scientists to analyze. The introduction demonstrates how large entities evolved to control the conditions of prediction and why digital solutions that fail to consider inherent political and commercial aspects of data production set the stage for harm and distrust. Governments, corporations, associations, universities, and other organizations have no moral obligation to provide a social good, especially outside their core mandate. Data science must begin to ask fundamental questions about power and possibilities within these institutional contexts.