Trinitarian Hagiography in Late Medieval England: Rewriting St Robert of Knaresborough in Latin Verse

The Order of the Holy Trinity for the Redemption of Captives (or Trinitarian Order) is one of the least studied continental religious groups to have expanded into thirteenth-century England. This article examines shifting notions of Trinitarian redemption in late medieval England through the prism of the order's writing about Yorkshire hermit St Robert of Knaresborough (d. 1218). Against the Weberian theory of the routinization of charisma, it demonstrates that Robert's inspirational sanctity was never bound too rigidly by his Trinitarian hagiographers, who rather co-opted his unstable charisma in distinct yet complementary ways to facilitate institutional reinvention and spiritual flourishing in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Introduction

The Introduction opens with broad reflections on the place of forgery, criticism, and debates over textual authenticity in the reception of Greco-Roman antiquity, whether in Renaissance Europe or today. It surveys recent literature on forgery and antiquity and also discusses the ongoing presence of moralizing language and polemic in works of ostensible dispassionate criticism. It then introduces readers to the text at the center of this book—Dares Phrygius’ De excidio Troiae historia or History of the Destruction of Troy—and discusses antecedents for works of this nature in the Second Sophistic. Thereafter, it examines Dares’ ambiguous place at the intersection of history, myth, and literary fiction, arguing that modern means of distinguishing among these concepts (such as the Weberian theory of “disenchantment”) are unable to explain the motivations of both Dares’ critics and believers. The remainder of the Introduction discusses issues of method, situating The First Pagan Historian within current trends in intellectual history, book history, and classical reception studies.

Uma análise weberiana da gestação das estruturas de dominação em sindicatos

This paper presents the report of a survey that aimed to investigate the role of union leaders in gestation structures of domination in Brazilian unions adopting an interpretative Weberian analysis. Weberian concepts, such as domination, social relation and legitimacy were articulated to explain, in a qualitative approach, the internal social relations within trade unions. The exploratory analysis of 26 interviews conceded by trade union leaders allowed the identification of five groups of orders that constitute maxims and rules of action among the union leaders. This paper focuses on the documental analysis of 115 documents looking for evidence of the domination structures genesis. The documents revealed that these structures go back to the trade union training process, especially from the decade 1970s. The data analysis was structured in five groups of orders: ethics; political repression; ideology; mistrust between parts; and validity of laws. The study concluded by the pertinence of the adoption of the interpretative Weberian approach to explain the action of administrative staff (as in Weber, the influential individuals on the decision making process within the organization) related to the making and preservation of the structures of domination, confirming the Weberian theory.

Post-ISIS Iraq and the Shia Armed Groups

The political environment of Iraq in the period from 2011-2014 experienced a great degree of turbulence. Many Sunni tribes in the Anbar, Ramadi and Salahadin regions organized a daily protest against the central government, accusing it of being sectarian. Gradually, these protests become more popular, and the Baghdad government became fearful that it would spread into the other regions of Iraq. In order to control the protests, the government used force, and many were killed. Simultaneously, in Syria, and especially during 2013-2014, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) controlled more land and more people, and to take advantage of the Iraqi people's dissatisfaction with their government, ISIS crossed the border between Iraq and Syria in June 2014. Mosul as the second most heavily populated city was seized by ISIS and the Iraqi army could not fight back, which meant that the Iraqi army retreated from most of the Sunni areas. Even Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, and the city where the central government operates, was threatened. While the Iraqi army was unable to fight against ISIS, the Shia religious supreme leader Al-Sistani called for self-defence and to stand against ISIS. Sistani’s call became a cornerstone for the creation of the so-called Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) with the aim of the fighting against ISIS. In this article, we assess the PMF from different perspectives, for example, using the Weberian theory that the state is the only entity that has a monopoly on violence, considering Ariel Ahram's model of state-sponsored and government-sponsored militias, and finally the devolution of violence to these armed groups.

The Shia armed groups and the future of Iraq

The rising and acceleration of the Shia armed group in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon require a deep understanding of the root of the multi-dimensional conflicts in the Middle East. An appropriate and sufficient approach to the research about these militias would be from a viewpoint of an internal conflict rather than an external conflict. The legitimization of the existence of the majority of these militias, if not all of them, is the fight and the struggle against an entity which is the Sunni sect, that would assimilate them rather than integrating them peacefully. In this article, we try to identify the impact of the Shia militias in Iraq on the formation of the future of this country. We maintain that these armed groups will be a destabilizing factor for Iraq and its neighbors, and they will worsen and deepen the sectarian division in the Middle East. We assess these different groups from different perspectives, for example, using the Weberian theory that the state is the only entity that has a monopoly of violence; Ariel Ahram’s model of state-sponsored and government-sponsored militias; and finally the devolution of violence to these armed groups.

The neo-Weberian state and the neodevelopmentalist strategies in Latin America: the case of Uruguay

This article seeks to contribute to the development of the neo-Weberian theory of public administration by making it travel to the Latin American context. We argue that this model of public administration reform, identified in continental European states, tends to be present in some Latin American countries that have followed neodevelopmentalist models of economic development. The neo-Weberian political strategy promotes a public sector modernization that enhances its steering and coordination capacities which is functional to a neodevelopmental view that aims to rebuild the state’s central role in leading economic growth and social cohesiveness. Yet, the public management model that is implanted resembles an ‘imperfect’ neo-Weberianism due to the institutional deficiencies of these countries and the difficulties in providing a clear reform script. We provide this link by decoding the main outlines of the public management model in Uruguay in the context of the reforms implemented by the Frente Amplio.Points for practitionersThe article demonstrates two central points. First, that the processes of public sector reform are usually linked to other broader development strategies and to calculations of political feasibility. This can explain to some extent the options taken by politicians. Second, public sector reforms are often a combination of multiple administrative doctrines. This poses the risk of being unsystematic, incoherent or even contradictory.

Examining the motivations for social entrepreneurship using Max Weber’s typology of rationality

Purpose This paper aims to utilize a framework from classic sociology – Max Weber’s Typology of Rationality – to understand the motivations for social entrepreneurship in responsible tourism in India. The critical role of the social entrepreneur in effecting the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship has been largely under-recognized. The authors seek to explore, develop and enhance Weber’s theoretical arguments in the context of the tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a constructivism paradigm and Seidman’s (2006) Three Interview Series technique to obtain the narratives of two social entrepreneurs in India. Data were analyzed using a hybrid thematic coding procedure. Findings Findings indicate that there exists a dynamic interplay between the formal and substantive rationalities that underlie the behavior of social entrepreneurs. The authors also discuss how entrepreneurs draw upon their formal and substantive repertoires to create their identities through the simultaneous processes of apposition (“Me”) and opposition (“Not Me”). Practical implications The findings provide an important recognition of the impact of formal and substantive rationalities on the conceptualization, implementation and manifestation of social enterprise for a variety of stakeholders. Originality/value This paper makes a significant contribution to understanding the why and the how of social entrepreneurship in responsible tourism. It provides a framework that can be widely applied to develop and enhance Weberian theory and further the understanding of the fundamental nature of human behavioral phenomena in tourism and beyond.