According to Aristotle’s hylomorphic analysis of substance, matter and form are metaphysical constituents of a substance that contribute to the reality of the substance. According to Aquinas, prime matter underlies every substance, which is merely a potentiality for substance that has no actual being apart from substantial form. Aquinas’s conception of prime matter was widely rejected by scholastics in favour of theories which endowed matter with intrinsic causal, spatial, and mereological properties. Aristotle’s hylomorphic analysis of substance was subsequently abandoned in the wake of the Scientific Revolution.

In this chapter, I shall raise doubts about contemporary atomistic philosophies that exclude matter or form, and I shall seek to situate Aquinas’s theory of prime matter in relation to the ‘primitive ontology approach’ to quantum mechanics, which posits the existence of a spatiotemporal distribution of matter that lacks any intrinsic properties.

Chapter 2 explores the significance of domination in state consolidation. It argues that while violence is the crudest and most basic form of establishing domination, it remains constitutive of state consolidation: within its boundaries, the state’s relationship to violence is constitutive. The chapter explicates an extreme case when the state lost all control over portions of its territory and population. These events were centered around the interstate war with Iran in the 1980s and a state-organized counterinsurgency campaign to capture the northern Kurdish territories in 1987 and 1988. The case allows us to zoom in on one of the longest legitimation and domination problems in Iraq: the reach of the state vis-à-vis Kurdish national aspirations. It also illustrates how this episode of state violence in Kurdistan triggered a series of developments that led to de facto and de jure Kurdish autonomy in Iraq. I show how the processes that contributed to the weakening of the Iraqi state consolidation are the same ones that also made a Kurdish autonomy possible.

Barbara Strozzi and Francesca Caccini enjoyed distinguished musical careers in their respective cities of Venice and Florence. Both received acclaim for their abilities as performers and composers. Yet while Barbara Strozzi performed mainly in the academy and private settings first established by her adoptive father, Francesca Caccini was an employee of the ruling Medici family. And unlike Strozzi’s situation as an independent musician, the conditions of Caccini’s employment necessitated her participation in a variety of musical genres and contexts, ranging from theatrical and chamber works performed at court to sacred music sung as part of liturgical services. Her responsibilities also included providing music and musical instruction for Medici princesses and other court ladies. Archival documents confirm that female musicians surrounded Caccini throughout her life, serving as role models, colleagues, and students. Caccini similarly emerges as the centerpiece and narrative goal of Cristofano Bronzini’s contemporary account of women’s musical contributions.

It has often been said Barbara Strozzi’s dedication of each of her printed books of music to a different patron demonstrates her lack of success in finding stable support. A careful examination of the system of dedications leads to a different conclusion. The main function of a dedication was to obtain the gradimento, or appreciation, of the dedicatee for the gift of the book, which would be expressed, almost always, in financial terms, as a gift to the author of cash or valuables. In agreeing to this exchange, the dedicatee also gained a reputation as a patron of the arts, but even more so as an exemplar of generosity. Strozzi’s dedications, therefore, demonstrate success in obtaining the approval of a series of important patrons.

In 2003, the late Rae Linda Brown wrote a paper called “‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’: Harry T. Burleigh’s Influence on Florence B. Price.” The paper was intended for a national conference called “The Heritage and Legacy of Harry T. Burleigh.” Brown’s plans to deliver the paper did not materialize, but with the permission of Brown’s sister, Carlene J. Brown, and the University of Illinois Press, Brown’s paper forms the basis of this chapter. Burleigh’s influence on Price’s art songs was profound and their correspondence reveals a mentorship model in which Burleigh’s authority (especially in his approaches to text, harmony, and vernacular idioms) was unquestionable. Price’s connection to Burleigh illuminates his position as a central figure in the wider community of early twentieth-century Black classical composers in the United States. This chapter brings greater context to the creative milieu in which Price worked.

This chapter examines the internal social dynamics among exiled Syrian intellectuals, showing how their positioning was shaped by structural, symbolic, and psychological factors. They competed for symbolic status, often based on perceived sacrifices for the revolution – a dynamic conceptualised as persecution capital. Their positioning was also influenced by material factors (work and funding opportunities) and personal traumas (incarceration, torture, and threats). These intersecting forces led to mutually antagonistic collectives, structured around ethicopolitical, generational, and geographical divides. The fragmentation of the intellectual field mirrored the broader fracturing of the revolutionary movement, weakening the opposition’s credibility domestically and internationally. But, while these divisions were often seen as a failure, the chapter argues that agonistic contestation within the exiled intellectual sphere played a constitutive role in shaping the movement’s cognitive praxis. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic pluralism, it suggests that these debates mark a revival of Syrian political discourse – a dynamic process that contributes to future political renewal.

Strozzi’s scores are generally more detailed in providing accidental signs than was the norm in her time, but their unwonted thoroughness complicates the handling of passages with unsigned notes that might appropriately be raised or lowered according to the context. Since Strozzi was so conscientious in supplying signs in situations where performers were most often left to be guided by rules of common practice, it seems possible that the omission of signs in some other passages might indicate a preference for uninflected pitches, rather than simple conformance with prevalent casualness of pitch notation. This essay examines passages in which modern performers and editors have frequently added accidentals according to modern performance practice norms, in many cases significantly affecting the way the music sounds, where Strozzi the (usually) detailed editor might have supplied accidentals had she wanted them.

Women’s musical networks in the United States were largely fractured along the color line. While Florence Price found acceptance within some white women’s musical organizations, a number of them were invested in white supremacy (a dynamic that was deeply rooted in the exclusionary and expedient practices of white women suffragists). Black women’s activism formed a necessary antidote to these conditions. African American women’s cultural organizing wove into the city’s Black concert scene, generating the musical sisterhood to which Price belonged. The result birthed a dynamic era of classical music-making in what came to be known as the Black Chicago Renaissance. Using a Black feminist framework, this chapter examines the Black feminist bonds between Price, the Bonds family (Margaret and Estella), and Marian Anderson, while citing further individuals (e.g., Nora Holt) and institutions (e.g., the National Association of Negro Musicians) that enabled Black women to thrive in the classical music sphere.

Corruption remains a pervasive global challenge, undermining trust, governance, and economic stability. Despite increased regulation, arbitral tribunals have struggled to address corruption effectively, often due to the high evidentiary threshold and associated procedural complexities. Artificial intelligence presents an opportunity to enhance efficiency and accuracy in detecting corruption by analysing evidence supplied by the parties to a dispute or amici curiae for red flags of illicit activities, similarly to other fields like anti-money laundering. The chapter examines the procedural implications of using artificial intelligence in arbitration, including data acquisition, party consent, and the potential impact on due process. It underscores the need for arbitrators to collaborate with parties to design protocols that ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability. By carefully addressing these challenges, artificial intelligence has the potential to become a transformative tool, balancing innovation with procedural integrity.

Neruda’s temperament was not theoretical, yet several “canonical” poems of his are infused with Marxist thinking. Although there is no evidence that Neruda read Marxist theory, in his thirties he assimilated its totalizing thought from party activism, from his second wife Delia, and from his friend, Spanish poet Rafael Alberti, each a lifelong communist. As an instance, Neruda’s poem “La United Fruit Co.” brings together four types of corporations, economic control of the state, the transportation of product, and subordination of labor. “The Strike” depicts the role of class conflict in the production process. “Cristóbal Miranda (shoveler-Tocopilla)” is one of fifteen portraits of industrial workers focusing on ordinary folk-history-from-below. “Los dictadores,” with its monster engendered by the wealthy autocrat in his palace, demonstrates the functioning of the dialectic in history. Neruda’s Marxism, though more intuitive than discursive, shapes these and other related poems of his.

Part III of the book looks at the beginnings and purposes of local history-writing. Chapter 7 makes a case for what made local history-writing a popular alternative to other forms of history-writing, particularly universal history but also some other forms as well. It briefly presents the rare occasions on which local histories from the early Islamic centuries say something specific about why they were inspired to compile their work. It then considers some arguments made by other modern historians, for example seeing local history-writing against the context of political fragmentation and ideas about local pride. The chapter then argues that the beginnings of local history-writing have to be understood against the context of emerging ideas about scholarly authority in the Islamic world, particularly the ideas pushed by scholars from Medina, most prominently Mālik b. Anas and his students, offering a historiographical justification for the distinctive authority of the scholars from that town.

Barbara Strozzi’s Sacri musicali affetti of 1655 is part of a vastly larger repertoire of Latin liturgical and nonliturgical sacred texts published and widely disseminated in seventeenth-century Italy. Her print fits within the category of non-liturgical texts, most often referred to as motets, sacri cantiones, or concerti ecclesiastici. Within this category there is a special subgroup of motets exclusively for solo voice and continuo (typically an organ, sometimes with the addition of other instruments), of which at least 163 other examples survive between 1608 and 1715. This subgroup is characterized by diverse aspects of general style, such as melodic typologies (arioso, aria, recitative, syllabic declamation, melismatic ornamentation, vocal virtuosity, ) and approaches to musical structure (ABA, AABB, ABB, strophic, through- composed, refrains, instrumental ritornelli, sectional shifts between duple and triple meters, changes of tempo, motivic patterns treated sequentially, sustained harmonic support of the vocal line or active bass lines in counterpoint with the vocal part, transposition of motives or longer passages, and tonal organization of segmented compositions. Examples of specific solo motet collections serve to highlight changes in style and structure from the first publication to Strozzi’s at mid century.

The afterword synthesizes the chapters in this volume to draw out themes, lessons, and future directions and acknowledges the importance of the ethnographic approach of this work. We expand on the three themes of ideals in tension with practices, the shifting nature of acquaintanceship to friendship, and the enactment of public and private across space and place. We argue for three valuable insights gained from reading these chapters together. First, they point towards the importance of how people read our intentions, friendship performances, and relationships. Second, friendships impinge on our ontological security. Third, there are rhythms to connections across space. Interactions are temporally bound and accounting for the temporal is helpful in completing analyses of friendships. Ultimately, we show how these chapters sit at the intersection of critical theory and symbolic interaction. We also underscore that this volume marks not the end, but a beginning of a renewed research agenda on critical friendship, one that began with contributors who were mostly strangers but who are now mostly friends.

The Conclusion reflects on the shifting role of Syrian intellectuals in the revolution, arguing that while they initially gained influence, their authority quickly declined due to state repression, public scrutiny, and strategic misalignments with their audiences. Intellectuals struggled to sustain political impact, as their discourses became disconnected from on-the-ground realities, particularly in navigating religiosity, extreme violence, and the absence of charismatic leadership. As the revolution stalled, many turned from mobilisation and critique to trauma work, constructing a Syrian Cause aimed at international audiences rather than shaping domestic political change. This shift was complicated by postcolonial anxieties about foreign intervention. The chapter also examines how exile fostered a paradigm shift – from a politics of being perceived to a politics of perceiving, where intellectuals repositioned themselves as global critics rather than local leaders. Ultimately, the chapter concludes that hopeless perseverance has become the defining ethos of Syrian intellectuals – persisting in narrating trauma and critiquing injustice, even as their political agency remains constrained.

This essay aims to reconstruct Strozzi’s ideal poetic library and to understand the impact that her literary choices had on her compositions. The poems she set come from a variety of traditions, from madrigals looking back to the late sixteenth century, to more contemporary styles, some of them quite irreverent. The poets named in her volumes include some of the leading figures rom the Venetian literary, theatrical, and academic spheres of the mid-seventeenth-century: authors of dramme per musica such as Giulio Strozzi, Aurelio Aureli, Pietro Paolo Bissari, and Giacinto Andrea Cicognini; noble amateurs such as Marc’Antonio Corraro, Nicola Beregan, and Pietro Dolfin; academics such as Gian Francesco Loredan; as well as several poets and librettists linked to the Roman singing world such as Sebastiano Baldini and Giovanni Pietro Monesio. Strozzi’s interpretation of metrical models and her stylistic originality shine through in the variety of forms she offers.

This article examines sovereign States’ three approaches to data security: data storage, data disclosure, and the ban on data-based applications. It investigates whether these three approaches comply with the principles of international investment law. It also analyses possible defenses for State parties to adopt its approaches by taking examples: the Indian government banning the operation of China-based Applications, and the forced but failed sale of TikTok under governmental pressure from the United States. Importantly, this article reflects whether the international investment legal regime can appropriately address the issue of data security. Reflecting the combined nature of data, it proposes an alternative approach—a holistic approach—to data security.