The Congregation

Author(s):  
James Daniel Cook

Chapter 7 turns finally to the implications of the previous chapters’ findings. Focusing on the issues of the social composition of the congregation and their level of commitment to (Chrysostom’s) Christianity, it is argued that sermon-texts are in their nature resistant to being used as sources for this kind of social history. Following Derek Krueger’s study of Byzantine liturgy, it is argued that sermons instead present how Chrysostom viewed his congregation, and how he wanted them to view themselves. How he addressed his congregation cannot be separated from his scripturally informed ecclesiology: for Chrysostom, his congregation are an instantiation of the Universal Church, the exalted body of Christ called to live a penitential life. His sermons can ultimately tell us only about his own construction of his congregation, though it is one which would in turn have gone some way to shaping the congregation’s own self-conception.

This collection of essays, drawn from a three-year AHRC research project, provides a detailed context for the history of early cinema in Scotland from its inception in 1896 till the arrival of sound in the early 1930s. It details the movement from travelling fairground shows to the establishment of permanent cinemas, and from variety and live entertainment to the dominance of the feature film. It addresses the promotion of cinema as a socially ‘useful’ entertainment, and, distinctively, it considers the early development of cinema in small towns as well as in larger cities. Using local newspapers and other archive sources, it details the evolution and the diversity of the social experience of cinema, both for picture goers and for cinema staff. In production, it examines the early attempts to establish a feature film production sector, with a detailed production history of Rob Roy (United Films, 1911), and it records the importance, both for exhibition and for social history, of ‘local topicals’. It considers the popularity of Scotland as an imaginary location for European and American films, drawing their popularity from the international audience for writers such as Walter Scott and J.M. Barrie and the ubiquity of Scottish popular song. The book concludes with a consideration of the arrival of sound in Scittish cinemas. As an afterpiece, it offers an annotated filmography of Scottish-themed feature films from 1896 to 1927, drawing evidence from synopses and reviews in contemporary trade journals.


2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-7

In this opening issue of volume 31 we are presented with both nuanced and bold entry into several long enduring issues and topics stitching together the interdisciplinary fabric comprising ethnic studies. The authors of these articles bring to our attention social, cultural and economic issues shaping lively discourse in ethnic studies. They also bring to our attention interpretations of the meaning and significance of ethnic cultural contributions to the social history of this nation - past and present.


Author(s):  
Miguel Alarcão

Textualizing the memory(ies) of physical and cultural encounter(s) between Self and Other, travel literature/writing often combines subjectivity with documental information which may prove relevant to better assess mentalities, everyday life and the social history of any given ‘timeplace’. That is the case with Growing up English. Memories of Portugal 1907-1930, by D. J. Baylis (née Bucknall), prefaced by Peter Mollet as “(…) a remarkably vivid and well written observation of the times expressed with humour and not little ‘carinho’. In all they make excellent reading especially for those of us interested in the recent past.” (Baylis: 2)


Author(s):  
Matthew S. Seligmann

As soon as he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911, Winston Churchill sought to buttress his credentials as a social reformer by improving conditions for sailors in the Navy and widening the social composition of the officer corps. This chapter examines his efforts towards both of these ends. It shows how he fought against the Treasury and his Cabinet colleagues to offer sailors their first meaningful pay rise in decades. It similarly catalogues the many schemes he introduced to entice people from a wider range of backgrounds, including sailors from the lower deck, to become naval officers. As with enhanced naval pay, this required him to persevere against entrenched interests, but as this chapter will show, his achievements in this area were considerable.


Author(s):  
Christy Constantakopoulou

This chapter provides a methodological discussion on how to use the evidence included in the Delian inventories in order to write the social history of the dedicants. The inventories were produced by the Delian hieropoioi and recorded on an annual basis the dedications kept in the Delian treasuries. The chapter focuses particularly on dedications which are attached to named individuals and communities. It then discusses the material according to the parameters of gender, individual versus community dedications, elite dedicants, and distance of travel. Using the inventories we are able to reconstruct who came to the Delian sanctuary to dedicate objects.


Author(s):  
Nisha P R

Jumbos and Jumping Devils is an original and pioneering exploration of not only the social history of the subcontinent but also of performance and popular culture. The domain of analysis is entirely novel and opens up a bolder approach of laying a new field of historical enquiry of South Asia. Trawling through an extraordinary set of sources such as colonial and post-colonial records, newspaper reports, unpublished autobiographies, private papers, photographs, and oral interviews, the author brings out a fascinating account of the transnational landscape of physical cultures, human and animal performers, and the circus industry. This book should be of interest to a wide range of readers from history, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies to analysts of history of performance and sports in the subcontinent.


Author(s):  
Gail Low

This chapter discusses Book History. Drawing on the disciplinary fields of ‘analytical bibliography’ and influenced by work in Annales social history, Book History takes as its subject the cultural history and the sociology of print, and also the impact of print on the ‘thought and behaviour of mankind’ from the Gutenberg press to the present day. As books make the complicated journey from the idea to print in all its variant forms, the connections between publishing, cultural, educational, and literary institutions—and the individuals involved in these—are crucial to understanding how they emerge in print, how they are used, how they circulate, and what they mean. The chapter thus addresses the following areas of importance to the social and material histories of the Anglophone novel to 1950: the ‘glocalized’ geographies of print and trade; newspapers and local literary cultures; colonial editions; libraries, readers and writers; trade and copyright legislation.


Author(s):  
Svend Brinkmann ◽  
Michael Hviid Jacobsen ◽  
Søren Kristiansen

Qualitative research does not represent a monolithic, agreed-on approach to research but is a vibrant and contested field with many contradictions and different perspectives. To respect the multivoicedness of qualitative research, this chapter will approach its history in the plural—as a variety of histories. The chapter will work polyvocally and focus on six histories of qualitative research, which are sometimes overlapping, sometimes in conflict, and sometimes even incommensurable. They can be considered articulations of different discourses about the history of the field, which compete for researchers’ attention. The six histories are: (a) the conceptual history of qualitative research, (b) the internal history of qualitative research, (c) the marginalizing history of qualitative research, (d) the repressed history of qualitative research, (e) the social history of qualitative research, and (f) the technological history of qualitative research.


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