Art as Gift in the Dutch Republic

This chapter explores the distinctive gift culture and the gifting of art in seventeenth-century Holland. Although gift giving has been marginalized in studies of seventeenth-century Dutch art, gift exchanges of various kinds, including art, were widespread in Dutch mercantile culture. Giving gifts was considered obligatory for nurturing burgher professional and personal relationships, and gifts of art played a key role in the Republic’s diplomatic engagements. Like their colleagues elsewhere, Dutch artists mixed gifts with sales transactions by offering their works as gifts to potential and established patrons, contacts, and familiars. Discussion of the special cases of Rembrandt and Vermeer is reserved for later chapters, but here examples of gifts by Hendrick Goltzius, Jan Lievens, Govert Flinck, and others are addressed.

Human resource management and innovation in SMEs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between HRM and innovation in SMEs through gift/counter-gift exchanges. Design/methodology/approach This is a qualitative case study of a SME using a diversity of data collection methods with a one year follow up to provide some longitudinal data. Findings The results indicate that the logic of giving has three stages: freeing up gifts, mobilizing gifts and rethinking gifts. The results also indicate that employees need to be central to the innovation from the beginnings of such projects. Research limitations/implications The authors note that their linear process in this study may give the impression that the process of innovation is linear and sequential rather than dynamic. They also point out that some cognitive bias could arise from the research being based on retrospection. Practical implications The authors make six recommendations: 10;1. The leader should share their strategic vision from the outset to gain as much support as possible 10;2. Seek to build a culture conducive to gifting 10;3. Encourage employee engagement using a bottom-up approach 10;4. Detect and enlist key players 10;5. Be aware of frustrations among employees 10;6. Create virtuous collaboration. Originality/value Many questions remain from previous literature regarding the relationship between HRM and innovation in SMEs. This study has originality and value in using the gift/counter-gift theory to explore that relationship.

The Tsar's Happy Occasion

This book shows how the vast, ornate affairs that were royal weddings in early modern Russia were choreographed to broadcast powerful images of monarchy and dynasty. Processions and speeches emphasized dynastic continuity and legitimacy. Fertility rites blended Christian and pre-Christian symbols to assure the birth of heirs. Gift exchanges created and affirmed social solidarity among the elite. The bride performed rituals that integrated herself and her family into the inner circle of the court. This book demonstrates how royal weddings reflected and shaped court politics during a time of dramatic cultural and dynastic change. As the book shows, the rites of passage in these ceremonies were dazzling displays of monarchical power unlike any other ritual at the Muscovite court. And as dynasties came and went and the political culture evolved, so too did wedding rituals. The book relates how Peter the Great first mocked, then remade wedding rituals to symbolize and empower his efforts to westernize Russia. After Peter, the two branches of the Romanov dynasty used weddings to solidify their claims to the throne. The book offers a sweeping, yet penetrating cultural history of the power of rituals and the rituals of power in early modern Russia.

Gaming the gift: The affective economy of League of Legends ‘fair’ free-to-play model

With its release in late 2009, League of Legends (Riot Games) has influenced the game industry in several profound ways. Known for its vast popularity and its pivotal role in pioneering live streaming and electronic sports, League of Legends is also noteworthy for its model of ‘fair’ free-to-play. Described by Riot Games and many industry professionals as ‘fair’ due to its lack of any ‘pay-to-win’ content ( Graft, 2013 ; Nutt, 2014 ), this model of free-to-play has gone on to influence a paradigmatic shift towards ‘games as a service’. In this study, the model of ‘fair’ free-to-play is critically framed as a lucrative affective economy involving reciprocal gift exchanges between players and commercial games developers. Drawing on 49 qualitative Reddit responses from players who buy in-game skins, this study positions the microtransactions of League of Legends as a notable example of affective economics that is bound up in reciprocal forms of commercial exchange. Framing this hybrid model of co-creative relations alongside examples from game, fan and Internet studies, it is the critical aim of this study to frame the microtransactions of League of Legends as an instance of affective valorisation. Paralleling the affective economics of various digital platforms, it is the view of this study that microtransactions in games should be considered as part of the same political economy of the Internet.

British Material Diplomacy in Precolonial Uganda: The Gift Exchanges of John Hanning Speke, 1860-1863

Summary In recent decades the interdisciplinary study of elite gift exchange in various geographical and temporal contexts has transformed historians’ understanding of colonial diplomacy. By combining analysis of textual, visual and material sources with theoretical approaches to material culture and gift exchange from anthropology, scholars have increasingly come to examine colonial diplomacy not only through the high-politics and text-based operations of bureaucrats in imperial metropoles, but also as a material and cultural project operating through the local and personal. This essay uses the published account of John Hanning Speke (1863) and his descriptions of ‘gift exchanges’ in present-day Uganda to understand the materiality of early British diplomacy there. As Speke was the first Briton to reach Uganda, it examines how gift exchanges impacted the logistics and outcomes of his visit. Re-examining his text this way reveals the importance of material knowledge, performance and exchange in early cross-cultural encounters in the region.

“Intirely the Kings Vassalls”: East India Company Gifting Practices and Anglo-Mughal Political Exchange (c. 1670–1720)

This article examines the role of gift exchanges in political relations between the East India Company and the Mughal imperial administration. Focusing on the period 1670–1720, it discusses the items selected for presentation, the occasions at which they changed hands, and the hierarchical relationships expressed and acknowledged through these transactions. It argues that in exchanges both with the central court and with provincial authorities, transfers of valuables in cash and kind between English and Indian actors were embedded in a wider imperial discourse regarding sovereignty and service. By acknowledging the continuum running from courtly engagements to everyday political interactions at local sites of power, a notion of Company diplomacy comes into view that straddled the boundaries between inter-polity relations and intra-imperial solicitation. As such, the case study invites us to rethink our notion of diplomacy as it pertained to relations between the English Company and Mughal state.

“Ismaël pria Osman de luy donner quelques Chrestiens”: Gift Exchanges and Economic Reciprocity in trans-Saharan Diplomacy (Sixteenth–Seventeenth Centuries)

The practice of gift-giving was omnipresent in trans-Saharan embassies. Gifts were the material expression of the political dialogue between rulers. Their quality and quantity was a good barometer of relations between rulers. A close analysis of the gifts sent or received by the Borno rulers (present-day Nigeria) between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries reveals a system of norms and customs on the part of the Borno chancellery. Their material value also raises the question of their economic dimension and how they were recycled. By focusing on the embassies between Tripoli and Borno in the early modern period, the aim of this article is to demonstrate that the gifts were a part of a normalized practice of diplomacy. Beyond the message carried by the gifts themselves, the Borno sultans mixed economic and political interests by integrating the exchanges of gifts into the wider trans-Saharan trade.