This chapter reads the Moroccan novelist and theorist Mohammed Berrada’s literary-critical memoir Mithla ṣayf lan yatakarrar (Like a Summer Never to Be Repeated, 1999). A former Souffles contributor, Berrada laments an Arabic in Summer that is recognizable as the emotionally potent, transregional Arabic that propelled the Moroccan avant-garde. Berrada’s memoir, which moves between Egypt and Morocco, ties this Arabic to the Egyptian president and charismatic Arab nationalist leader Gamal ʿAbd al-Nasser’s 1956 Suez speech as the unrepeatable origin of anti-colonial, Arab revolution. In Summer, Arabic was once transregionally alive, but it is lost in the present. Summer makes the narrative of this loss – at once linguistic, political, historical, and emotional – the necessary task of the Arabic novel at the end of the twentieth century. Revisiting themes of gender and corrupted language, Summer expresses nostalgia for Nasser as a benevolent, Arab nationalist strongman and for the emotional experience of decolonization. In its theory of the Arabic novel after Arab nationalism, Berrada’s memoir imagines itself relaying the solitary voice of an author (who also reads transregional Arabic novels about the end of revolution) to his distant, equally isolated Arab reading publics.

This chapter focuses on the collaborative and participatory methodologies of the Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative, an international, cross-sector partnership of survivors, scholars, artists, lawyers, museums, architects, community organisers, civil society organisations, and mental health professionals who are committed to documenting the history of the Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992), accompanying bottom-up commemoration and healing processes, and preventing future violence. Using Experiences and Memories of Arcatao (2024) as a case study, this chapter explores the collaborative documentation of victim names and the co-creation of local community history books as an alternative form of justice that meets the recommendations of the United Nations Commission on the Truth for El Salvador in a context of enduring impunity. The authors emphasise the long tradition of local community organizing and popular education in Chalatenango, as well as the role of international solidarity actors who contribute significant resources and technical support.

Chapter 10 offers a summary of the structure, methodology, and findings of the book. It highlights the interdisciplinary nature of the investigation, in particular how a philosophically grounded argument can bear upon the reasoning of the Court while simultaneously addressing a pressing societal challenge.

By understanding participation in transitional justice as the capacity of victims to exercise agency in addressing their needs, this chapter shows how victim mobilisation is a form of participation that can advance victims’ agendas independent of any formal process. Using the lens of critical victimology to both highlight and privilege the agency of victims of violations, we show how relatives of persons missing in Nepal’s armed conflict have successfully renegotiated their relationships with their families, community, and even local government, in ways that impact how they experience victimhood. This shows how collective action and empowerment can serve to drive social change in the everyday spaces that victims occupy in ways that can transform their lives, even though impunity remains institutionalised by the authorities. This reframes participation in transitional justice as something that can be realised largely independent of a formal process.

Research concerning the variety of close relationships adults maintain, initiate, cease, and lose during middle and later adulthood has been fast growing in recent decades. Much of the theoretical and empirical work in this field has aimed to overcome views of older age as a time of loss and decline, both individually and socially. Moreover, recent trends have focused on the increasingly diverse experiences of the aging population. This includes not only extended life expectancy – and, importantly, extended healthy life expectancy – but also demographic changes, including larger proportions of racial/ethnic minorities attaining older age; new cohorts of openly LGBTQ adults entering mid and later life, many of whom represent the first generation of same-sex married couples; and the phenomenon of “gray divorce” and romantic repartnering in the years beyond age 50. This chapter will cover both the history and foundations of research on close relationships in middle and later life, as well as these recent trends in the field, finishing with an eye toward future directions as both the aging population and our perceptions of it continue to change.

People form different types of relationships with others. One common, valued, type is a communal relationship. In communal relationships, people assume responsibility for one another’s welfare and give and seek responsiveness non-contingently. Here we review ways in which communal relational contexts shape people’s emotional lives. In communal relationships, giving and receiving non-contingent responsiveness is linked to positive emotion, whereas failure to do so or behavior indicative of following inappropriate norms (e.g., norms governing transactional relationships) leads to negative emotion. In addition, the presence of communal partners often reduces threat and enhances the intensity of positive and negative reactions to environmental stimuli. Communal contexts are associated with greater expression of emotions signaling one’s own needs (which partners sometimes socially reference as signs of their own needs) and with expressing more indicative of empathy and care for the partner. All these effects can feed back and strengthen communal relationships.

We examine family systems and family relationships. Using family systems theory (Cox & Paley, 1997, 2003; Minuchin, 1985), we focus on how families are viewed as a hierarchically organized system, comprised of smaller relationships (i.e., subsystems) such as parent–child relationships, embedded within larger systems such as extended families and their broader social ties. We organized the discussion of subsystems as follows: (a) Core subsystems, including relationships of romantic partners, coparenting alliance, parent–children, and siblings; and (b) Subsystems with broader social ties, in the form of extended family and/or intergenerational ties, including coparenting alliances in post-divorce or foster families as well as parents and parents-in-law relationships. We also consider these various subsystems within and across diverse families and family contexts, attending to aspects of gender, family structures, income, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, cultures, and national origins. We end with suggestions for future research (e.g., combining the lenses of family systems with intersectionality).

It is a common bromide and accepted truism that if one has nothing to talk about, then one can always talk about the weather. From office parties to high school reunions, from blind dates to cross-Atlantic airline flights, weather is the go-to conversation starter that rarely succeeds in starting the conversation. That makes it particularly strange that a philosopher, a person who generally has too much to say – indeed, who belongs to a class of intellectuals deemed so stuffy and smug as to pride themselves entirely on the alleged depth and meaning of the things they say – would stoop so low as to talk about the weather.

The EU Takeover Directive (TOD) has significantly shaped the landscape of mergers and acquisitions within the EU. The process of reaching an agreement on its text was exceptionally challenging, spanning over a decade. The ultimate version is an incomplete harmonization effort, leaving numerous areas and options for the Member States. Its 20th anniversary gives the occasion to take a closer look at how the TOD has been implemented by different Member States, shedding light on how the Directive has influenced corporate behaviour, market dynamics and the overall European economy.

This chapter examines the profound impact of reggae sound system culture on both British and global music scenes, tracing its evolution and influence across racial and geographic boundaries. Initially, it explores the origins and cultural significance of sound systems in Jamaica, focusing on figures like Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd and Duke Reid, and their role in shaping social events through innovative audio technology. It then shifts to the migration of sound system practices to Britain, highlighting the adaptation of these practices within British urban life, with key figures like Dennis Bovell leading the way. Finally, the chapter discusses how sound system culture influenced global music, particularly electronic genres such as dub, jungle, drum and bass, and grime. It emphasises the lasting legacy of sound systems in modern music, despite the decline of traditional systems in Jamaica and the UK, showcasing their ongoing global impact.

Chapter 3 focuses on Hong Kong, where there were 261 death sentences but no executions after 1966. Chinese hostility to democratic reforms prevented the constitutional advances that occurred in other colonies in this period and left the British government vulnerable to parliamentary scrutiny in the wake of an execution. Previous studies argued that Britain required Hong Kong’s governors to commute death sentences from the mid 1960s, but colonial correspondence shows that clemency was not automatic until a decade later. Clemency appeals were judged on a case by case basis, even after Governor Murray MacLehose’s decision to uphold Tsoi Kwok-cheung’s death sentence was overruled by the British government in 1973. MacLehose thereafter played a central role in negotiating the Hong Kong Executive Council’s support for reprieves and eventually oversaw de facto abolition, as he strived to prevent capital punishment compromising his administration’s reform agenda. MacLehose also set a precedent for future governors by opposing reforms to the death penalty in other British Dependent Territories, which he feared would draw unwanted attention to Hong Kong’s anomalous position.

Thirty years after the European Commission requested Robert Pennington to produce a draft directive, Directive 2004/25/EC on Takeover Bids was published. This chapter examines the Commission’s various proposals during this time and the manner in which both the nature of the Directive and its provisions changed. It analyses the Commission’s 1989 and 1997 proposals and Council’s 2000 Common Position focusing on the provisions that dealt with the General Principles, the supervisory authorities, board neutrality and the mandatory bid. It describes the subsequent conciliation process and the compromises reached in order to arrive in June 2001 at an approved text. Having recounted the dramatic rejection of this proposal by a tied vote in Parliament in July 2001, the chapter examines the role of the High Level Group of Company Law Experts in restarting the process and its introduction of the ‘breakthrough rule’. It then explores the Commission’s 2002 Proposal and the intense negotiations, lobbying and political manoeuvring in 2003 that led to a further compromise text in November 2003. The chapter concludes by noting the unenthusiastic reception from Member States and commentators and the obvious disappointment of the Commission at what it perceived as a watered-down proposal.

The Self-Sharing Messiah: Paul’s description of the Christ event in Galatians and elsewhere in his letters portray Jesus’ loving action not as self-sacrifice but as his positive participation in human and specifically Israelite condition. His action shares all that belongs to him with believers and establishes believers as competent moral actors and enables them to reciprocate his self-gift.

This chapter introduces the electronic dance music culture kuduro (‘hard arse’) from Angola. It delineates the diasporically intertwined history of kuduro, introduces the main aesthetic strategies and, finally, focusses on the undervalued microphone practices of animação). Based on ethnographic research, the contribution crystallises the insight that kuduro, as a practice that requires deft skills and stamina, is throughout its history intrinsically tied to electronic dance musics around the globe rather than representing the exotic other to Western EDM. This fine-grained analysis of the material leads to the conclusion that kuduro is best understood within the framework of sound system cultures of the Black Atlantic, throwing the specificity of kuduro into sharper relief while also situating it within the larger context of similar practices.

The ownership landscape of European companies has fundamentally changed in the twenty years that have passed since the adoption of the Takeover Directive. The growth of institutional investors and asset managers and the shift from active fund management to passive index funds affect the likelihood of takeover bids succeeding. Hedge fund activism was virtually unheard of in Europe twenty years ago, but there are now cases of M&A activism across various Member States. Foreign investment in European companies can also potentially facilitate cross-border mergers and acquisitions. The willingness of shareholders to tender their shares to a hostile bidder can differ significantly depending on the type of shareholder involved. These major changes to the shareholder landscape in European companies can therefore impact how active the European market for corporate control ultimately is. Overall, the interplay between (foreign) institutional investors, activist hedge funds and merger arbitrageurs can potentially alter the market for corporate control in ways that were not envisaged when the Takeover Directive was adopted.