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2523 results in Cambridge Elements

Page 3 of 127

Theories, Models, and Metaphors in the Historiography of Christian Origins

Theories, Models, and Metaphors in the Historiography of Christian Origins
  • Adele Reinhartz
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • This Element focuses on the historiography of Christian origins from the mid-19th century to the present. It argues that this historiography is shaped by two factors: the theories and ideas that prevailed in the historians' own eras; and the views about Jews and Judaism in predominantly Christian societies. In the mid-19th century, the Great Man theory, developed by Thomas Carlyle, fostered debates about which Great Man - Jesus or Paul - founded Christianity. In the late 19th century, evolutionary theory, especially as developed by Charles Darwin, helped shape narratives about the evolution of Christianity out of, or away from, Judaism. After 1945, Holocaust theory prompted historians to reconsider the implicit and explicit anti-Judaism of earlier views. From the late 20th century to the present, postmodern theory challenged metanarratives and binaries – such as Judaism/Christianity – and the very attempt to arrive at a comprehensive and linear account of Christian origins.
Policy Dynamics in the European Union

Policy Dynamics in the European Union
  • Eva Thomann, R. Kent Weaver, Tiziano Zgaga
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • In multilevel governance systems, member states work together to address cross-border problems, yet people still lack a clear understanding of how and why their policies differ or converge. Existing research offers many explanations but often treats them separately or overstates the EU's independent influence. This Element brings these perspectives together in a single framework of policy dynamics. It distinguishes policy areas shaped mainly by EU institutions or member states, or by their interaction. It introduces an actor-centered typology of policy dynamics – stable patterns of actors, incentives, and mechanisms that shape policy over time. The Element shows that these dynamics matter only when governments, interest groups, and NGOs have the incentives, capacity, and leverage to build coalitions and pursue goals. The policy dynamics framework helps learners identify likely causal mechanisms and supports clearer comparison, explanation, and teaching of EU policymaking. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Agency Theory in Public Administration

Agency Theory in Public Administration
  • A Comparative Study of the US, China, and EU
  • Eduardo Araral
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • This Element advances an agency-theoretic approach to public administration through comparative analysis of the United States, China, and EU. It examines how principals – such as legislatures, executives, or ruling parties – can align the actions of diverse agents, including civil servants, public agencies, street-level bureaucrats, and contractors, with the public interest. Drawing on an extensive review of 146 key studies and AI-assisted analysis of 8,400 articles from Public Administration Review, Part I outlines fundamental concepts: goal divergence, moral hazard, adverse selection, and information asymmetry and traces its history, debates, and criticisms. These concepts are then applied to key themes in public administration – performance management, federalism/decentralization, contracting, politics-administration, and institutional drift. Part II investigates how these problems manifest and tackled in the US, China, and Europe. Part III concludes with a synthesize of findings, debates, extensions, and future directions for theory and practice.

Fuzzy Authoritarian Rule
  • How Uncertainty Deters Dissent
  • Dawn Brancati, Nadine Sika
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Many authoritarian regimes, including some of the world's most populous autocracies, such as China and Egypt, often do not make it clear what views, attitudes, and behaviors people may express openly without being sanctioned. This Element investigates how the uncertainty that this style of rule instills among people impacts the effectiveness of repression in deterring dissent. The authors develop a novel argument about how it can magnify the effect of repression by affecting how people understand what repression signals about a regime's resolve to sanction dissent. Their analysis, based on two laboratory experiments conducted in Egypt, confirms their argument and, in the process, challenges aspects of prominent behavioral arguments linking negative emotions to uncertainty. The authors' results imply that repression is least effective against acts of dissent regimes are opposed to the most and are very clear about their resolve to repress them as a result.

Generative Artificial Intelligence and English-Medium Education
  • Benjamin Luke Moorhouse, Jack Pun, Samantha M. Curle
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • The rapid integration of generative AI (GenAI) tools into higher education (HE) presents both transformative opportunities and pressing challenges, particularly in English-medium education (EME) classrooms. While GenAI tools offer innovative possibilities for enhancing instruction, assessment, and learner autonomy, they also raise concerns about the erosion of meaningful language and content learning experiences through over-automation and excessive reliance on algorithmic output without involving students' thinking process. This Element offers a timely, practitioner-focused exploration of how GenAI tools can be thoughtfully integrated into both language and content-subject teaching while addressing key threats GenAI poses within EME contexts. The Element does not seek to promote the uncritical adoption of GenAI into HE but instead offers a pragmatic way forward that recognises the essential role of agentic teachers in supporting student content and language learning.
Decolonial Disruptions in Central Asia

Decolonial Disruptions in Central Asia
  • Discussion, Practices, and Networks
  • Erica Marat, Aizada Arystanbek
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • A consequential shift is taking place in Central Asian studies today. What started as a slow rejection of the idea that the region benefited from Soviet control has turned into a decentralized, collective effort to revise the region's relationship to its colonial identity and to search for indigenous interpretations of the self. This Element explores the current decolonial disruptions in Central Asia-how the region is being redefined by its inhabitants, both in discourse and in practice. It captures the main areas of activism in memory studies, language activism, art installations, and transnational solidarity networks. Decolonial discussions are gaining traction, challenging political elites' hegemony over national identity formation. Such changes harbour the potential to profoundly alter Russia's influence in the areas it once controlled. Decolonial disruptions are reshaping how Central Asians think about their past and imagine their future.
Decoloniality in Multilingual University Spaces

Decoloniality in Multilingual University Spaces
  • Sarah Hopkyns
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • This Element explores multilingual university spaces and decoloniality, critically examining how coloniality and neoliberalism intersect. While neoliberal language policies aim to equip students with English as a 'lingua academia', critical issues relating to students' translingual identities and belonging are often overlooked. Empirical data is shared from a linguistic landscape study involving a walking ethnography of a university educationscape in the United Arab Emirates, whereby Emirati students share insights on signage and spaces as 'intertextual products' connected to (un)belonging. Data are analysed through thematic and nexus analysis with main themes including the dominance of English, imbalanced bilingualism, bottom-up translanguaging, everyday nationalism, and sticky places and objects. Findings are discussed in relation to the study setting and other global contexts. The Element closes with practical suggestions on decolonising action relevant to a range of multilingual university spaces and future research directions.

Wittgenstein and Relativism
  • Martin Kusch
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • When scholars discuss the question whether Wittgenstein was a relativist, they invariably draw their criteria from recent definitions of relativism. This study tries a different route: it identifies conceptions of relativism that were influential in the early twentieth century, and uses them as foils for interpreting Wittgenstein's philosophy. Section 1 investigates what Wittgenstein meant in speaking of his 'ethnological perspective,' and how this perspective relates to 'cultural relativism' in anthropology around 1900. Section 2 focuses on Wittgenstein's reflections on logic and mathematics as 'ethnological phenomena.' In this context, the ethnological perspective brought Wittgenstein close to positions that many of his contemporaries denounced as 'psychologism' and 'sociologism.' Section 3 highlights the role of the ethnological perspective in Wittgenstein's remarks on 'certainties.' Many of these remarks would have been counted as relativistic by leading members of the 'Vienna Circle.'
Theory of Mind and Language Development

Theory of Mind and Language Development
  • Silke Brandt
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • This Elements presents a series of studies investigating the relationship between language, Theory of Mind, and other cognitive skills, across different languages and cultures. The first set of studies focuses on longitudinal relationships between English-speaking children's understanding of complement-clause constructions (e.g., He said that the sticker was in the red box), mental verbs (e.g., think vs. know), modal verbs (e.g., must vs. might), and Theory of Mind. The second set of studies investigates links between complement-clause constructions, mental verbs, and Theory of Mind in Mandarin Chinese and English. The last study looks at English- and Turkish-speaking children's knowledge of evidentiality, source monitoring, and Theory of Mind. Together, these studies suggest that there are different linguistic tools that enable children to represent and acquire Theory of Mind, and that the availability and choice of these linguistic tools differ across languages and cultures.
Rethinking Political Meritocracy

Rethinking Political Meritocracy
  • An Attention-Based Approach
  • Xiao Ma
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Political meritocracy, which selects and promotes officials based on their work performance, is an important explanation for China's rapid development. While prior studies focus on territorial leaders (kuai), less attention is given to functional department leaders (tiao), whose performance is harder to measure, attribute, or compare. This Element introduces an attention-based explanation, arguing that in China's complex bureaucratic system, marked by intricate divisions of labor and information asymmetry, capturing superiors' attention is critical for official's career advancement. Through case studies and analyses of original biographical data on functional department leaders, this Element reveals: 1) Promotion likelihood correlates with officials' ability to gain superiors' attention; 2) Not all attention-seeking behaviors align with governance goals, often fostering bureaucratic issues like formalism and over-implementation. This attention-based framework tries to reconcile debates on competence versus connections in Chinese political selection and explains both the bureaucratic system's successes and its governance challenges.

Psychology of Religion, Spirituality, and the Thriving Family
  • Gina M. Brelsford, Jennifer S. Ripley
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Religion and spirituality in the family is a burgeoning field of inquiry. This Element will begin by providing basic definitions, theoretical underpinnings, and common assessments of religion and spirituality (R/S) within the family. The authors also examine individuals' religious and spiritual (R/S) landscapes in relation to family functioning, and then consider positive psychology dimensions such as gratitude, humility, compassion, and forgiveness within the context of family members' religiousness and spirituality. Finally, interventions focused on R/S in the family unit and children's medical complications in relation to R/S factors and familial functioning are discussed. Conclusions include recommendations for future research and clinical practice to support families via an R/S lens.

Egypt and the Levant
  • Networks and Negotiations in the Bronze Age
  • Anna-Latifa Mourad
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Egypt and the Levant witnessed complex transformations across the Bronze Age. Beyond the rise and collapse of powerful cities and states were the long-distance connectivities that enabled the movements of people and animals, and the interlinked exchanges of commodities and ideas. By the Late Bronze Age, these connectivities exhibited markers of globalisation. This Element considers how such markers emerged and developed in the preceding centuries. Focusing on the third to mid-second millennium BCE, it brings together recent research on socio-political developments and cross-cultural interactions to give an overview of the transforming networks linking Old to early New Kingdom Egypt and EB III to LB I Levantine communities. In doing so, the Element incorporates approaches that move away from imperialist structures of exchange to consider how dynamic networks were negotiated and maintained across periods of socio-political change.
Effect-Driven Interpretation

Effect-Driven Interpretation
  • Functors for Natural Language Composition
  • Dylan Bumford, Simon Charlow
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Computer programs are often factored into pure components - simple, total functions from inputs to outputs - and components that may have side effects - errors, changes to memory, parallel threads, abortion of the current loop, and so on. In this Element, the authors make the case that human languages are similarly organized around the give and pull of pure values and impure processes, and show how denotational techniques from computer science can be leveraged to support elegant and illuminating analyses of semantic composition in natural language.
Examining Secrets and Revelation In Music and Audio Technology Cultures

Examining Secrets and Revelation In Music and Audio Technology Cultures
  • Samantha Bennett
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Dirty little secrets. Secret weapons. Trade secrets. Phrases so ubiquitous in music and audio technology culture that, in the twenty-first century, they serve as powerful mechanisms in the production and consumption of music and audio technologies and skillsets. Secrets and revelatory discourse serves to historicize, imagine and commodify skillsets whilst amplifying technological fetishisation. Grounded in historical and psychology scholarship, this book examines secrets and revelation as part of a continuum of the protection of tacit knowledge. Packed with examples and qualitative data drawn from trade shows, online fora, industry associations, retail, textbooks, and education, this large-scale study elucidates the mechanism of secret holders, secrets, revelation and listeners as being intrinsic to music and audio technology cultures. The results of this research illustrate how, in the potent distillation of music and audio technology knowledge and skillsets into commodified secrets, little to nothing is revealed.
The Jena 6

The Jena 6
  • Of Nooses, Fights, Narratives, and Movement Building
  • Pamela Oliver, Chaeyoon Lim, Anna Milewski, Erin Gaede
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Tens of thousands of mostly younger Black people went to rural Louisiana in 2007 to support the Jena 6, Black students who were overcharged after a school fight. We examine the construction of two narratives. The powerful Jena 6 narrative told how the conflict began when nooses were hung on the school grounds, linking historic racial violence to modern injustice. This narrative emphasized student agency and downplayed documented adult actions. A second narrative about organizing the campaign incorrectly said that existing organizations had ignored the case. We use published sources to trace the ordinary processes as activists, journalists, and organizations became involved in the campaign through three phases – regional organizing, nationalization, scale shift to cascade. In the last phase, many saw this as a historic reinvigoration of the Black movement. Circulating narratives inspired participation by stressing youthful agency and spontaneity. More accurate accounts are better for theory and action.
Heidegger and the Problem of Metaphysics as Ontotheology

Heidegger and the Problem of Metaphysics as Ontotheology
  • Ian Alexander Moore
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Heidegger characterizes the history and essence of metaphysics as ontotheological. Ontotheology concentrates on the being of entities and conceives of this being in two interdependent ways. First, as common to all entities, being serves as the ontological ground for their coherence and intelligibility. Second, being is understood theologically, that is, by recourse to a highest entity that both exemplifies what is common to entities and serves as the causal foundation of entities and their being. Heidegger often speaks of an ontological difference, but what interests him is not simply the difference between entities and their being but what enables us to make this distinction in the first place, that is, being itself. Notoriously, Heidegger accuses the philosophical tradition of neglecting this non-ontotheological, enabling condition. This Element reconstructs and critiques Heidegger's conception of metaphysics as ontotheological. It then examines his non-ontotheological understanding of being itself, God, and divinity.
Political Lotteries and Democracy

Political Lotteries and Democracy
  • Alexandra Cirone, Brenda Van Coppenolle
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    30 April 2026
  • Across history, lotteries were used in political selection to combat corruption, ideological polarization, and inequity in access to governance. Today, democracy seems to be facing similar challenges – are lotteries a potential solution? This Element responds to recent calls to incorporate lotteries in democracy, by analyzing historical cases of their use. We focus on the rationale behind and benefits of lotteries – to prevent elite capture, equalize access to power, and improve deliberation – and then the details of their implementation. Drawing on academic research, our chapters analyze the use of lottery-based selection in pre-modern Greece and medieval Florence, and present original micro-level empirical data on lottery-based selection in the construction of the 1848 Danish constitution and in parliaments in 19th century Europe. We conclude with a discussion of how these analyses inform the use of lotteries in modern day governance. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Contemporary Iranian Horror Cinema
  • Max Bledstein
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • This Element explores how twenty-first century Iranian filmmakers have applied elements from Persian culture to the horror genre. Although horror films have not often been a part of the rich Iranian cinematic tradition due in part to censorship laws following the 1979 revolution, I argue that a small group of directors has made provocative use of the genre. The first section draws on theories of monstrosity to examine the re-contextualisation of pre-revolutionary film tropes in the work of Fereydoun Jeyrani. The second section examines how Mohammad Hossein Latifi uses the slasher to navigate debates around female university students. The third section discusses Shahram Mokri's use of single takes to facilitate horror's function as social critique. The final section examines the depiction of politics and history in the films of Mani Haghighi. The analysis reveals Iranian horror to be both a vibrant tradition and valuable for understanding the genre's global importance.
Climate and Environment in the Southern Levant, 1300–300 BCE

Climate and Environment in the Southern Levant, 1300–300 BCE
  • 1300–300 BCE
  • Dafna Langgut
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • Past climate fluctuations significantly shaped human ways of life. This Element reconstructs the Southern Levant climate (ca. 1300–300 BCE) using high-resolution, well-dated paleoclimate records. Results show a 150-year arid phase ending the Late Bronze Age, likely driving the collapse of eastern Mediterranean complex societies. The Iron Age I saw a return to humid climate conditions, fostering highland settlement expansion and supporting the rise of the biblical kingdoms. This was one of the region's most profound cycles of collapse and revival. During Iron Age II, climate conditions were moderate, similar to today. The Achaemenid period began with brief aridity, followed by renewed humidity. Pollen evidence, along with additional data such as charcoal remains, was employed to trace environmental changes, including variations in the composition of natural vegetation. Human impacts on the environment were also identified, including fruit tree cultivation, deforestation, overgrazing, the introduction of new plant species, and landscape terracing.

Divine Simplicity
  • Thomas H. McCall
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    May 2026
    Print publication:
    31 May 2026
  • The doctrine of divine simplicity is an important element of major monotheistic religions; not only Islamic and Jewish but also Christian theologians have affirmed and defended the doctrine. However, the historic doctrine is the subject of intense debate within these traditions. Historic expressions of the doctrine are surveyed, important objections are considered, and arguments in favor of the doctrine are summarized.

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