bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Youth, Group Singing, and Peacebuilding in Urban Zimbabwe
Authors: Gukurume Simbarashe 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
To combat boredom, political violence, waithood, and the attendant frustrations, many young people in Zimbabwe turn to music. In an authoritarian state that has long closed off the public sphere and other political and discursive spaces to critical voices, young people have carved out alternative publics where they engage with the political and articulate their grievances and frustrations with the state and its excesses. This chapter examines the temporalities of youth group singing and how it is deployed as a peacebuilding tool in urban Zimbabwe. Drawing on ethnographic research with youth popular musicians (Zimdancehall and urban grooves), the author argues that these genres provide young people with a critical discursive space to creatively navigate violence and enact peace. Apart from being a space through which young people politically resist the gerontocratic, corrupt, and marginalizing power system, the author also frames Zimdancehall music as a discursive space where political differences are (re)negotiated through peaceful encounters. Through group singing, young people try to shape and reshape their futures and fill their days with purpose. In fact, to entertain themselves and improve their well-being, youth participate in group singing, and during weekends, community halls become spaces of collective discursive musical expressions. Through group singing, the author asserts, young people constitute themselves as socio-cultural agents, but most importantly also as political actors who creatively speak truth to power, while simultaneously bridging political polarization and enacting community cohesion.
From Art Music to Heart Music
Authors: Evison Fiona 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
This chapter explores the place of relational composition in community singing. During in-depth interviews aimed at revealing views and experiences, 33 composers and community music leaders offered insight into the valuable roles that composers can play in participatory music-making. Using grounded-theory methodology, the author theorizes that community composers write and facilitate music-making in ways that benefit both the community and themselves. Composers become a part of a community through a continuum of compositional activities reflecting various levels of creative input and control. This requires multi-skilled, relationship-based compositional practices, which are enhanced by non-traditional training. Community composers’ practices reflect a shift in thinking and values from those often associated with art music, resulting in relational purposes for composition that balance, or even prioritize, the well-being of people with the musical product. Relational composition is applied in the context of participatory singing, where it results in inclusive, creative music that emotionally impacts both the singers and composer.
New Music for Old Prayers
Authors: Shragg Lior 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
This chapter examines the role music plays in communal performances of religious devotion and the construction of social identity within Black Lemba and Rusape Jewish communities in Zimbabwe. A study of the musical practices of Lemba Jews reveals how the combination of local music styles with Hebrew text creates a new genre of Jewish liturgical music. In contrast, composers in the Rusape Jewish community create new music for worship in the vernacular dialect, although they similarly incorporate local music practices. Drawing on transcription, analysis, and interviews, this chapter offers ethnographic reflections and data concerning the ongoing efforts of both Lemba and Rusape Jewish communities as they continue their efforts to develop new Jewish music. The purpose of this investigation is to offer insights into Black Zimbabwean Jewish identity as displayed through communal singing and religious devotion. My study reveals that Black Zimbabwean Jewish identity is a component of a complex constellation of characteristics that can be attributed to both Lemba and Rusape Jews. There is a sense of great pride and legacy among these communities and a desire to establish a connection to the outside Jewish world. I argue that music is an important vessel through which they choose to perform their identities as communities.
Vernacular Christmas Carol Singing in the Southern Pennines of England
Authors: Russell Ian 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
The performance of distinctive carols has been a feature of the season of Christmas in villages within a 25-mile range of Sheffield for well over 250 years. The region comprises some 50 or more settlements, many of which maintain a vernacular caroling tradition. In contrast to the monodic examples of solo performers recorded in England by folksong collectors in the early part of the 20th century, the carols and the manner of performance are wholly dependent on social interaction, characterized by part singing. This chapter will explore this tradition of community singing in terms of function, meaning, musicality, group structure, style, and repertoire. The dynamics that distinguish these groups are analyzed, including transmission, the roles of singers, and the performance milieux. These carols differ significantly from the standard repertoire broadcast on British television and radio during the holiday season, and promoted by churches and choral institutions. They are performed by ad hoc groups without formal musical direction, largely comprising singers who have not had formal training, but have learned the tradition by ear.
Land for Livelihoods
Authors: Jacobs Ricado 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Rapid urbanization and ever-expanding surplus populations are rooted in the tendency of global capitalism to destroy established livelihoods faster than it creates new ones. This growing relative surplus population is differentiated along racial, gender, and citizenship lines. Drawing on illustrations of cities in the global South and the global North, this chapter argues that sections of the dispossessed rural classes are reproducing themselves in urban spaces and converging with different strata of wage laborers to eke out an agricultural livelihood. This places urban agriculture and food production as an important arena of land struggles and a livelihood option for sections of both the old and newly formed urban classes. It is also thus one of the key pillars of the urban land question and anticapitalist agrarian struggles in the twenty-first century. These land struggles are shaping in consequential ways the process of urbanization, transforming socioecological relations and landscapes in the city.
Enterprise Privatization and Ex Post Firm Performance in Post-Socialist Economies
Authors: Mizobata Satoshi , Iwasaki Ichiro 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
This chapter discusses the relationship between post-privatization ownership and firm performance in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU). Based on the literature of enterprise privatization, it predicts that CEE countries perform better than FSU countries in enterprise restructuring. It also assumes that (a) the voucher system is the worst privatization method; (b) direct sales are superior to management-employee buyouts (MEBOs); and (c) the speed of policy implementation is related to progress in firm restructuring. The chapter reports that a research synthesis of 2,894 estimates drawn from 121 previous studies support these hypotheses overall. The results also indicate that in CEE and the FSU countries, private entities were more desirable corporate owners compared to the state; therefore, privatization policy was an essential element for the restructuring of the former socialist companies in the transition economies. The chapter concludes that the lesson obtained from enterprise privatization in CEE and the FSU is that the policy design for enterprise privatization is crucial, but that whatever it is, the free transfer of state assets must be avoided at all costs.
J-Curved Growth Path
Authors: Iwasaki Ichiro , Kumo Kazuhiro 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
After the collapse of socialism, there was not a single country in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU) that did not experience a serious economic crisis. Furthermore, the process of economic recovery from the crisis varied greatly among these countries. This economic phenomenon, known as the J-curve growth path, has caused a great deal of controversy among economists over its determinants. This chapter traces one of the most important debates in the transition economics, and elucidates the mechanism of the J-curve growth path through a meta-analysis of previous studies. The results of the meta-analysis, which employs 3,279 estimates drawn from 123 previous studies, reveal that while the growth-enhancing effects of structural change and transformation policy were small yet significant, inflation and regional conflict had a highly significant and strongly negative effect on output. In addition, the legacy of socialism might exacerbate the decline in production in the early stages of transition. Although these five factors have been repeatedly argued in the extant literature as main causes of the economic crisis and recovery in CEE and FSU countries, the meta-analysis is the first to compare their effect sizes, finally providing a complete picture of the mechanism of J-curve phenomenon.
From Cellhouses to the Parliament
Authors: Kurt Mashuq 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
This chapter investigates the ethnoreligious dimensions of the Kurdish question in Turkey. It focuses on a prominent Kurdish Islamist group, Hizbullah, and its transformation from an underground armed organization in the 1990s to a multiplicity of legal entities and a political party, the Free Cause Party (Hür Dava Partisi, Hüda-Par), under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) since 2002. After introducing a short historical account, it examines the conditions of Hizbullah’s emergence and its reconfiguration in the context of the Kurdish national struggle and the Islamist mobilization under the AKP’s governmentality in Turkey. It explores the power configurations and shifting alliances among the Islamist political fields following the failed peace negotiations between the Turkish state and the PKK in 2015 and the military coup attempt in 2016. It suggests that by thoroughly examining these shifting alliances and paying scholarly attention to the developments in the ethnoreligious political fields, we can understand the ways in which Kurdish Islamist groups navigate and adapt within the complex socio-political landscape of Turkey, shedding light on the intricate interplay between ethnicity, religion, and politics in the region.
Munging the Ghosts in the Machine
Authors: Yung Vincent , Colyvas Jeannette A. 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Data wrangling is typically treated as an obligatory, codified, and ideally automated step in machine learning that transforms qualities into quantities and quantities into algorithmic inputs. In contrast, this chapter proposes a different perspective, suggesting that archival data wrangling is a theory-driven process best understood as a practical craft. The chapter draws on empirical examples from contemporary computational social science to identify nine core modes of data wrangling: noticing, accessing, filtering, assembling, weaving, casting, visualizing, retracing, and prospecting. These modes, while presented as sequential, are actually iterative and nonlinear in practice. Treating data wrangling as a craft allows researchers to practice reflexivity in a process that is inherently political. Archival evidence and analytical methods can propagate enduring institutional biases if left unchecked. To this end, the chapter also discusses how data wrangling can help address issues of coded bias in scholarly research and beyond. While contemporary machine learning focuses on architectural engineering, a thorough engagement with it requires a deep of understanding of data wrangling.
Machine Agencies
Authors: Yolgörmez Ceyda 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
This chapter builds on the phenomena of large language models (LLMs) to crystallize the outlines of a sociology of machines. LLMs pose many problems to our existing conceptions, especially the notion of agency in sociology, but at the same time present possibilities for developing a different kind of thinking. This chapter will problematize singular conceptions of agency that presuppose an individual actor, and develops an approach to understanding agency as a processual and collective achievement that includes human-machine socialities of different kinds. In discussing machine agencies, the chapter will first consider the figurations of human-machine relations that condition the possibility and stability of these models. Then, it will think through an event of machine authorship to both expose the limits of contemporary notions of agency and to propose a new way of looking at human-machine relations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the possibility of a sociology of machines founded on creative and playful methodologies and suggests this as a way to resist the dominant forms in which technology is commonly conceived.
Disseminating Buddhism in Transnational Organizations
Authors: Cheng Wei-yi 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
This chapter introduces contemporary transnational Buddhist organizations, investigating the diffusion of Buddhism across borders through transnational networks. It specifically focuses on Buddhist entities that have emerged from the latter part of the twentieth century to the early twenty-first century. These organizations may have their origins in one country, but they extend their influence and activities beyond national borders. The primary aim of this chapter is to introduce readers to Buddhist organizations that actively engage in transnational networking, a trend expected to further expand with technological advancements. The progress in transportation and communication technologies has made way for a novel era for Buddhists whose religious practices are being significantly shaped by this evolving phenomenon. The discussion is based on Peggy Levitt’s classification of transnational religious organizations into extended, negotiated, and recreated categories. This chapter expands the framework by introducing an “interactive” category, which takes into account the transnational religious influence of short-term mobile individuals.
Argentina
Authors: Chehtman Alejandro , Espósito Carlos 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
This chapter examines the integration of international law within the Argentine legal framework, highlighting its constitutional acceptance since the 19th century and the substantial deepening occurred with democratization after 1983 and the constitutional reform of 1994. Through both doctrinal and empirical analysis of treaty practices and judicial applications, it illustrates Argentina’s respect for and application of international norms, especially in international human rights law, countering traditional dualist and monist theories. The study contributes to understanding domestic implementation of international law and the dynamics of such law in Argentina’s legal system, signaling some features of a distinctive Argentine foreign relations law.
Assemblies and the Courts
Authors: Cammiss Steven , Doherty Brian , Hayes Graeme 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
To what extent is the protest trial a threat or an opportunity to protesters? This chapter argues that it is both. Trials potentially provide a site of resistance and the means for ongoing struggle and contestation, while simultaneously threatening to repress and restrict protesters’ voices. While protesters may wish to accept prosecution and conviction as the necessary consequence of direct action, their trial may nonetheless enable them to raise their political claims; foreground motives, ideals, and politics; speak truth to power; and address a wider audience beyond the courtroom. Recognizing that the court is a social space, not merely a site of adjudication, reveals the normative function of a trial as a social and communicative activity where the defendant is called to account. Yet there is significant variation in how trials serve this purpose and the degree to which they provide opportunities or constraints for activists. By contrasting two significant protest cases in the UK (the ‘Stansted 15’ and the ‘Colston 4’), the chapter not only reveals the extent to which some protest trials are more ‘political’ than others but suggests that one explanation lies in the availability and interpretation of legal defences which can serve to open up the courtroom as a political site. In this regard, the Stansted 15 were constrained by the process while the Colston 4 were effectively able to place Colston and Bristol City Council on trial.
History and Assembly in the Postcolony
Authors: Lockwood Sarah J. 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
The importance of history on protest has long been noted by scholars of social movements, but the literature still lacks a detailed understanding of the ways in which earlier assemblies influence assemblies in the modern day. This chapter provides an initial attempt to fill this lacuna by examining the ways in which historically important anti-colonial assemblies continue to influence protest in the postcolonial world today. Drawing on a rich set of examples, it argues that anti-colonial protests shape contemporary protests in ways far broader than the literature has traditionally assumed—affecting the issues protested, the types of protest we see, and the social and political arrangements that channel protest. Crucially, while some of these connections between past and present may be important globally, this chapter argues that there is something distinct about the way that anti-colonial movements influence contemporary protest in the postcolony. This is because the continued dominance of colonial arrangements and anti-colonial movements make it particularly difficult for activists today to break free from their influence. It is thus impossible to fully understand contemporary protest activity in the postcolony without studying and understanding these historical influences.
The Digitally Mediated Freedom of Assembly
Authors: McPherson Ella 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
We must reimagine the digitally mediated freedom of assembly—a misunderstood and misattended manifestation of this human right. Mediation, or the transmission of communication across time and space, is core to the practice of assembly, and so online assembly is a more mediated version of face-to-face assembly—rather than a lesser form. Even so, digitally mediated assembly is discredited as slacktivism—slacker activism, portmanteaued—in Western public spaces. This epithet springs from a tradition of subordinating the freedom of assembly to other communication rights, like the freedom of expression, because assembly is seen as a collective (vs individual), emotional (vs rational), and positive (vs negative) liberty. Slacktivism is also a visibility backlash: a reactionary, pervasive, distracting, media-fuelled phenomenon that preserves the status quo of public visibility. Discursively repositioning assembly online as the digitally mediated freedom of assembly extends the protection of this right to more people and more practices. It highlights the importance of incorporating assembly affordances into human rights-centred technology design, such as the affordances of pre-assembly, sight and sound, and gathering. Emergent social media platform trends—like depoliticization, the fragmentations of networks, and user alienation—only make attention to assembly affordances all the more urgent. Furthermore, promoting the idea of collective rights such as assembly helps us reimagine other communication rights currently understood as individual, such as the freedom of expression, raising the possibility of a détente in the current culture wars around this right.
Dramatic Criticism
Authors: Wu Duncan 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
An erroneous consensus has built up around Leigh Hunt—that he created the drama review as we know it, being responsible for increasing the amount of attention given theatre by daily newspapers and by making it normal for papers to devote lengthy notices to particular performances. In fact, as this chapter demonstrates, there is no evidence for these misconceptions. Instead, it would be more accurate to see Hunt as the inheritor of a thriving culture of journalistic reviewing which stems back to the mid-eighteenth century, and which was fostered by morning and evening papers, London, and provincial papers. The repeated claim that Hunt single-handedly brought the corrupt system of puffing to an end (i.e. favourable reviews paid for by free tickets and other blandishments) is also wildly inaccurate; the first steps to cease the practice were taken in 1798 and had nothing to do with Hunt. The careers of three theatre reviewers of the day are surveyed in order to show that Hunt was building on their work when he joined their ranks. Hunt’s theatre reviews are more often than not concocted essays that have little to do with specific performances. A better candidate for the role of innovator would be William Hazlitt, of whose theatrical reviews Hunt’s champions are usually surprisingly ignorant.
Essays
Authors: Morrison Robert 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
The Romantic essay took many different forms to strikingly different ends. Some versions of it appeared as book-length arguments that were designed to convince readers of a certain point of view, including Thomas Robert Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population and Hannah More’s Essay on the Character and Practical Writings of St Paul. But the vast majority of Romantic essays were shorter pieces first published in the periodicals, including the mordant reviews of Francis Jeffrey, the epistolary articles of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the raucous dialogues of John Wilson, and the dynamic sketches of Charles Dickens. Most notably, liberal-minded magazines like the London and the New Monthly fostered a new kind of personal essay that expanded and reworked eighteenth-century iterations of the form, and that reached its highest points in the writings of Thomas De Quincey, Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, and William Hazlitt.
Europe
Authors: Saglia Diego 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
As ideas of cultural identity in Britain solidified between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Romantic-period narratives of the nation’s literary heritage confronted and accommodated a long history of contacts and exchanges with neighbouring traditions. This chapter addresses this process of cultural self-construction by exploring how Romantic nonfiction prose engaged with Europe as a literary–cultural continuum and assessed the place of England and Britain within it. Exploring selected literary works—including Thomas Warton’s History of English Poetry (1774–1781), John Dunlop’s History of Fiction (1814), Walter Scott’s essays on chivalry, drama, and romance for the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1818–1824), William Hazlitt’s lectures and critical essays (1817–1820), and Thomas De Quincey’s ‘Letters to a Young Man Whose Education Has Been Neglected’ (1823)—this chapter reappraises how nonfiction prose contributed to the emergence of a Romantic discourse on the nation’s literary–cultural history and identity, its current condition, and possible developments within the encompassing context of Europe.