Ancient Approaches to Letter-Writing and the Configuration of Communities through Epistles

Author(s):  
Thorsten Fögen

The chapter explores reflections on the practice of letter-writing, with equal attention to instructional handbooks (esp. Demetrius’ Περὶ ἑρμηνείας‎, Iulius Victor’s Rhetorica, Pseudo-Demetrius’ Τύποι ἐπιστολικοί‎, Pseudo-Libanius’ Ἐπιστολιμαῖοι χαρακτῆρες‎, and Erasmus of Rotterdam’s De conscribendis epistolis) and the meta-generic statements that letter-writers routinely embed in their correspondence (with a special focus on Cicero, Ovid, Seneca, and Pliny the Younger). In both types of sources, what one might call the social dimension of style registers as a primary concern: in order for the letter to fulfil its purpose, namely to generate a special bond between sender and recipient, the chosen idiolect has to be ‘appropriate’ (πρέπον‎/aptum) to the interpersonal relationship and its specific circumstances and exigencies. Shared stylistic values and the willingness of the letter-writer to adjust his character to that of the recipient generate a sense of community between the correspondents.

Author(s):  
Laura Dingeldein

This essay focuses on the social functions of Paul’s letter writing activities, with the purpose of helping to situate such activities within the landscape of ancient Mediterranean epistolography and religion. After briefly identifying major areas of interest in recent research on Paul’s letter writing activities, the author examines the ways in which Paul’s epistolary practices advanced his goals in social positioning, community building, and virtue cultivation among Christ recruits. Letters were understood within classical antiquity to facilitate conversations among friends, reveal a writer’s character, and provide clear and concise instruction on a given subject. Letter writing also often contributed to the social capital of a letter’s author, insofar as letter writing displayed skills in literacy and textual production. Each of these epistolary functions would have advanced Paul’s goals regarding social positioning, community building, and moral development, thus making letters the ideal written medium for Paul to use in his apostolic activities.


2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Aboubakr Badawi

AbstractContrary to the hopes created by globalization, most observers report a substantial degradation of living standards, social protection, and basic social services, such as education, employment and health. This paper discusses the social dimensions of globalization with special focus on its impact on health services. Six main issues are addressed, namely, commercial exploitation of health plants, monopoly of health commodities, new food hazards, unfair implementation of intellectual property rights, marketing of tobacco and similar health threatening items, and the brain drain from developing countries. Specific recommended actions are presented, aiming for globalization that is more favorable to the poor.


2020 ◽  
pp. 145-163
Author(s):  
Marta Casals Balaguer

This article aims to analyse the strategies that jazz musicians in Barcelona adopt to develop their artistic careers. It focuses on studying three main areas that influ-ence the construction of their artistic-professional strategies: a) the administrative dimension, characterized mainly by management and promotion tasks; b) the artistic-creative dimension, which includes the construction of artistic identity and the creation of works of art; and c) the social dimension within the collective, which groups together strategies related to the dynamics of cooperation and col-laboration between the circle of musicians. The applied methodology came from a qualitative perspective, and the main research methods were semi-structured inter-views conducted with active professional musicians in Barcelona and from partic-ipant observation.


This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, classicists, and scholars of religion, it illustrates how letter collections advertised an image of the letter writer and introduces the social and textual histories of each collection. Nearly every chapter focuses on the letter collection of a different late ancient author—from the famous (or even infamous) to the obscure—and investigates its particular issues of content, arrangement, and publication context. On the whole, the volume reveals how late antique letter collections operated as a discrete literary genre with its own conventions, transmission processes, and self-presentational agendas while offering new approaches to interpret both larger letter collections and the individual letters contained within them. Each chapter contributes to a broad argument that scholars should read letter collections as they do representatives of other late antique literary genres, as single texts made up of individual components, with larger thematic and literary characteristics that are as important as those of their component parts.


1994 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dick Leith

Abstract: To non-specialists, academic disciplines invariably seem homogeneous, even monolithic. But even a relatively young discipline such as modem linguistics is more diverse in its procedures and concerns than might appear to those working in other fields. In this paper I attempt to show how certain kinds of linguistic inquiry might be relevant to those whose primary concern is rhetoric. I argue that these practices are often opposed to what I call the dominant paradigm in modern linguistics, with its commitment to abstraction and idealization. I discuss first those strands of linguistics, such as discourse analysis, text-linguistics, and stylistics, which tend to take the social formation for granted; I end by considering recent trends in so-called critical language study. Finally, I offer some thoughts on how linguistics may proceed in order to achieve a more programmatic rapprochement with rhetoric.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Valeriy HEYETS ◽  

Self-realization of the individual in the conditions of using the policy of “social quality” as a modern tool of public administration in a transitional society is largely related to overcoming the existing limitations of the individual in acting in such a society and economy transitioning to a market character. Given that, in particular, in Ukraine the market is hybrid (and this is especially important), the existing limitations in self-realization of the individual must be overcome, including, and perhaps primarily, through transformations in the processes of socialization, which differ from European practices and institutions that ensure its implementation. Thus, it is a matter of overcoming not only and not so much the natural selfish interests of the individual, but the existing gap in skills, which are an invisible asset to ensure the endogenous nature of economic growth. It is shown that there is an inverse relationship between the formation of socialization and the policy of “social quality”, which is characterized by the dialectic of interaction between the individual and the group and which is a process of increasing the degree of socialization. The latter, due to interdependence, will serve to increase the effectiveness of interaction between the individual and the group, which expands the possibilities of self-realization of the individual in terms of European policy of “social quality” as a tool of public administration, whose successful application causes new challenges and content of the so-called secondary sociology. The logic of Ukraine's current development shows that new approaches are needed to achieve the social development goals set out in the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union and to minimize the potential risks and threats that accompany current reforms in Ukrainian society. They should introduce new forms of public administration to create policy interrelationships of all dimensions, as proposed, in particular, by the social quality approach to socialization, the nature of which has been revealed in the author's previous publications. As a result, the socio-cultural (social) dimension will fundamentally change, the structure of which must include the transformational processes of socialization of a person, thanks to which they will learn the basics of life in the new social reality and intensify their social and economic interaction on the basis of self-realization, thereby contributing to the success of state policy of social quality and achieving stable socio-economic development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Syufaat Syufaat

Waqf has two dimensional meaning; the spiritual dimension that is taqarrub to Allah and the social dimension as the source of Islamic financial for the welfare of the people. Waqf disputes can be caused by several reasons; waqf land is not accompanied with a pledge; waqf is done on the basis of mutual trust so it has no legal proof and ownership. Currently, the choice to use the court is less effective in resolving disputes. Hence, the public ultimately chooses non-litigation efforts as a way to resolve the disputes. Mediation process is preferred by many as it is viewed to be the fairest way where none of the two parties wins or loses (win-win solution). It is also fast and cheap. This study is intended to examine how to solve waqf dispute with mediation model according to the waqf law, and how the application of mediation in the Religious Courts system


2020 ◽  
Vol 338 ◽  
pp. 265-275
Author(s):  
Daniel Zimmermann

In July 2019 the new president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented her guidelines for the period of presidency 2019-2024. While most proposals perpetuate the current reform agenda, the focus on the social dimension of the single market is remarkable. Von der Leyen has not only announced the full implementation of the European Pillar on Social Rights, but also highlighted new investment in digital competences seen as a key to competitiveness and innovation of the European economy. This paper will discuss whether the dynamics of the digital single market could lead to a new impetus on EU social policy and on European funding of training programmes. Therefore, an overview of significant funding programmes promoting digital skills is given.


Author(s):  
Alexandra Lamont

Alexandra Lamont discusses how musical preferences are a way to construct, reconstruct, and communicate a sense of identity, indicating aspects of personality, attitudes, and lifestyle. She reviews recent research demonstrating how musical preferences can provide information about age, gender, and personality. In addition to the social dimension, she also touches on aspects of personal musical identity that are developed through imagination. Lamont furthermore considers our imagined relationships with the music itself and the musicians responsible for creating and performing it, taking a lifespan perspective from childhood and adolescence through to old age.


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