Historical linguists investigate those contexts that are considered to be most relevant to language change, given the theoretical approach adopted and the phenomena to be investigated. The topic of this chapter is usage-based perspectives on language-internal change, especially as conceptualized in the frameworks of research on grammaticalization, semantic-pragmatic change, and diachronic construction grammar. Contexts may be immediate, local “co-texts” or wider linguistic discourse contexts. Contexts tend to be wide and discursive as change begins to occur and local after it has occurred. I discuss the roles in enabling change of ambiguity, of pragmatic inferencing, and of “assemblies of discursive uses” such as have been proposed in work on constructionalization. With respect to contexts for “actualization,” the step-by-step language-internal spread (or loss) of a change that has occurred, focus is on host-class expansion and on the often analogy-driven changes across contexts, especially as revealed in corpus work.

Chapter 2 focuses on the text of ECHR Article 9 and other international provisions protecting the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion including Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and Article 1 of the Declaration on the Elimination of all Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief (1981 Declaration). It also explores the drafting history of these Articles through an examination of the relevant travaux préparatoires. By analysing this material, and drawing upon a recent, deeply valuable contribution to the understanding of ICCPR Article 18, Chapter 2 seeks to demonstrate that it is more faithful to these text of the ECHR Article 9 and the relevant travaux préparatoires to understand the forum internum and forum externum aspects of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion in terms of a relationship rather than in terms of a binary and hierarchical distinction.

Because the rules of the competitive game are tremendously flexible, there are few limits to the amount of change that can be achieved through SBM. Therefore, it may seem that, in SBM, ``all options are on the table at any time. This is not quite the case.In practice, there are limits to what can be achieved by SBM at any given moment. Ideas that are too far from the status quo cannot even be entertained, so the practical options are limited to a window around the status quo. This is called the Overton window. Moreover, legislative (as opposed to regulatory) change does not happen gradually over time. Instead, change is punctuated: the status quo lasts for a long time and then, suddenly, all the change happens at once. Therefore, when SBM involves a legislative change, there are narrow windows of opportunity.

The constitution of a political economy is not a fixed constellation of relationships but a set of principles governing which relative positions and transformations are feasible under the existing constitutional arrangements. Constitutional principles imply that persistence and change are closely intertwined: a degree of persistence ensures the identity and stability of a political economy, while openness to transformation is necessary to allow resilience vis-à-vis shocks and adjustment to societal change. Each economic body is identified by a particular division of labour, representation of interdependencies, and dispositions of individuals and groups in the economy. Dispositions and interests are also central in the constitution of the political body, which leads to a definition of systemic interest and of the range of variation within which a given systemic interest can accommodate different constellations of partial interests. This conception of political economy makes principles of economic ordering essential to the life of the polity, and acknowledges the existence of political alliances or conflicts arising from division of labour between centres of agency in the economic sphere. The consideration of matches and mismatches between the two spheres opens a line of investigation that is central to understanding the history and prospects of political economies.

In a survey that begins by looking at the ways in which post-war Britain gradually escaped from the popular cultural domination of the USA to create a new musical empire of its own, this chapter explores the manner in which home-grown pop reflects upon and influences notions of national identity. While progressive and revolutionary through the creation of new musical styles that sought to change the cultural, social or political landscape, pop has sometimes revealed itself to be nostalgic and backward-looking. This has often resulted in the curation of an Anglocentric musical tradition celebrating national stereotypes, but this is a tradition that has more recently been contested by other sounds, other voices, writing themselves into the pop history of the UK to become an integral part of the equally evolving character of the nation.

In the Conclusion, I reflect on the importance of adopting a generational, life-stage, and gendered lens to the study of transnational families. Close consideration of the interplay between physical, social, and phenomenological distance in transnational families demonstrates that the experience of distance is affectively mediated and inevitably relative, just as the meaning of relatedness is negotiated over time and across space. Since economic and social processes are always made sense of from particular social locations, the Conclusion underscores how attention to familial transformations is productive for understanding wider social change.

In Chapter 5, I turn to ritualised practices of relatedness, specifically the weddings of those in London, approaching them as transnational household rituals, which contribute to the reproduction and reconfiguration of families across space. In examining migrant weddings as moments in individual and familial life cycles, I consider how these rituals offer opportunities for negotiating relations within a discourse of ‘tradition’. Moreover, I suggest that the emotionally and morally significant community of belonging, which weddings help to constitute, further mediate kinship relations. At the same time, the chapter considers non-normative weddings (registry ceremonies) and intimate relationships (come-we-stay’, or cohabiting, relationships), as well as singledom, exploring their impact on the making of persons and relations. Together, they reveal how marital and parental status shape expectations and practices of relatedness across space and moral economies of transnational kinship more generally.

The second chapter continues the examination of class aspiration, but this time from the point of view of those entering the middle and upper-middle classes. Here government policies of affirmative action and Black Economic Empowerment have borne fruit for some. But the benefits of these policies come with strings attached, for the workplace is often experienced as hostile and unwelcoming. Life in the suburbs, even for the nouveau riche, can be alienating. The key texts studied in this chapter, aided by a wealth of ethnography in this area, are popular romances (Sapphire Press, Nollybooks) and ‘chick lit’ (Zukiswa Wanner, Cynthia Jele) aimed at black female South Africans. These texts, it is argued, serve a self-help function, negotiating shifting structures of identity along with changes in lifestyle, affiliation, values and meanings.

George Angohiatok (pronounced ‘ano-HI-tok’) is a keen observer of Arctic landscapes, animals, and peoples. Raised on the land by his parents and grandparents in the western Canadian Arctic, George talks easily about his deep appreciation for the land and his significant concerns for the future of the Arctic and Inuit. George shares his observations of changes to the physical and social environments – changes he calls overwhelming – through richly detailed personal narratives. In the conversations presented in this chapter, George deftly weaves together changes to both settings, and illustrates the importance of considering our two worlds holistically. George’s story and words are transcribed here with minimal interruption from the other authors. Conventional academic reflections on methodology and literature are found within George’s story and afterwards.

The way that professionals perceive of, and engage with individuals and families is critical. It establishes the context for trusting relationships to develop and opportunities for positive change to occur. In this chapter, we consider the ingredients of helpful and responsive practice with individuals and families experiencing vulnerabilities. In so doing, we privilege knowledge gained from the perspective of lived experience experts. Essentially, our work together is concerned with redressing the imbalance in our current systems of education and academia that privilege the voices of professionals and academics. Our approach includes sharing stories about our multiple and complex experiences as clients and/or practitioners to illuminate key foundational concepts. It is our belief that building the necessary knowledge base, skill set, and ethical stance required to become a helpful professional, pivots on understanding the lived experiences of people who access services at vulnerable times in their lives. This chapter continues our collective aspiration to continue producing knowledge for practice that privileges voices that are often marginalised.

Classical and medieval rhetorical theorists had many names for the figure of thought that we call ‘personification’ or prosopopoeia. This fundamentally hybrid figure occurs at the confluence of different kinds of discourse; definitions range across a spectrum from the ‘animate abstraction’ to the ‘person introduced to speak’. The essay explores the diverse rhetorical theory behind this figure. It then discusses the hybridity of this figure, and in particular its striking capacity for multivalency, change and even disintegration (paradiastole), in medieval vernacular narrative allegory. It focuses on Langland’s Piers Plowman, with reference to the figures Clergie, Patience, Conscience, Wil, Haukyn and Piers Plowman. Finally, the essay investigates another aspect of this hybridity that might seem counter-intuitive to readers who assume that prosopopoiae/personifications should have surface or even naturalistic narrative coherence: the way that this figure of thought allows Langland repeatedly to cultivate an ambiguity about whether his prosopopoiae/personifications are lay or ordained. This telling ambiguity reflects the poet’s disengaged attitude to the institution of the church and even the priesthood.

Research is a fundamental catalyst for change in our food systems, playing a key role in diagnosing problems, setting empirical targets and pathways, and developing and scaling solutions on the ground. Unlocking the transformative functions of research will require radical changes in the research agenda and the way knowledge is produced and disseminated. Research must be context-sensitive, inclusive, built on long-term strategic engagements, responsive and adaptive to emerging needs, and packaged in accessible formats. In some cases, participatory, action-oriented research with a systems approach can be combined with reductionist, technology-driven approaches to support the behavioural changes required for systems transformation. Additional efforts can unlock and incentivise the transformative attributes of research, including relevant theories of change, strategic partnerships, nested scales approaches, and a creative leadership style.

Chapter 6 discusses the daily activities of older hippies. By exploring what they currently do for fun and comparing it with their past leisure activities, this chapter explores patterns of continuity and change in practice and meaning. It also suggests that the hippies diverse leisure repertoires and ethics of play significantly contribute to their wellbeing in later life.