Context is a vague, ill-grounded, and multifarious concept. In this chapter we try to provide an overview of the various acceptations in literature and suggest a design-based approach. In this view, four contexts can be defined: the sociocultural context, the educational context, the geotemporal context, and the learning environment. The first three contexts are impossible to change, but they have an impact on the fourth, which needs to be designed. The geotemporal context remains largely underexplored, but it is quite promising given the emergence of new technologies such as (Linked) Open Data.

This study explores the importance of a full(er) understanding of ‘context’ when analysing and interpreting the indirect incitement of violence, a speech act closely related to that of persuasion. Using descriptions of context from Systemic Functional Linguistics (Bowcher, 2014; Hasan, 2014, 2020), the chapter qualitatively examines a small number of selected extracts from a very particular online community – a pick-up artist (PUA) forum. The main argument here is that the contextual configuration of the discourse, in terms of the nature the community and the participants in it, is such that posts which on the face of it appear to be giving advice or expressing opinions could be potentially inciteful in this context. Incitement has typically received relatively little linguistic attention, and indirect incitement poses a specific challenge for linguistics and law alike. This chapter goes some way to providing a new perspective from which the elusive discursive action of incitement can be analysed and interpreted.

This appendix provides an explicit description of the free n-category generated by an n-polygraph. This section is mostly inspired of the work of Makkai. A formal definition of the syntax of n-categories is first provided, describing morphisms in an (n+1)-category freely generated by an n-polygraph, allowing reasoning by induction on its terms to prove results on free categories. It turns out that this syntax for n-categories, which corresponds to the one used throughout the book, is very "redundant", in the sense that there are many ways to express a composite of cells which will give rise to the same result, and is sometimes not very practical for this reason. An alternative syntax, which suffers less from these problems, is provided by restricting compositions. Finally, a brief mention of the word problem for free n-categories is made.

This chapter establishes the main properties of the category of n-polygraphs. Limits and colimits are computed, and the category is proven to be complete and cocomplete. The behavior of the cartesian product deserves a special attention in that it does not correspond to the product of generators. The monomorphisms (resp. epimorphisms) in are then characterized as injective (resp. surjective) maps between generators. The linearization of polygraphic expressions plays a central role in proving these facts. Whereas the category of n-polygraph is a presheaf category in low dimensions, it already fails to be cartesian closed for n=3, the culprit for this defect being as usual the Eckmann-Hilton phenomenon. The categories of n-polygraph are, however, locally presentable. The technical notion of context is introduced in relation with n-dimensional rewriting, and used to prove that if an ω-category is freely generated by a polygraph, then this polygraph is unique up to isomorphism. Finally, rewriting properties of n-polygraphs are defined and coherence results are proven by rewriting on (n-1)-categories presented by convergent n-polygraphs.

An introduction to attachment theory while completing an undergraduate degree in South Africa opened an opportunity to study at Johns Hopkins University with the recognized mother of attachment theory, Mary Ainsworth. My tenure with her was intensive but short, as she decided to leave Hopkins for Virginia, leading me to head further north to Yale, though not until Ainsworth had introduced me to both Melvin Konner (a distinguished anthropologist) and Urie Bronfenbrenner, a doyen of developmental psychology then determined to radically transform stuffy developmental psychology into a contextually sensitive sub-discipline. With Ainsworth and Bronfenbrenner as off-site mentors, William Kessen introduced sophisticated developmental theory while Edward Zigler expounded the importance of using research to inform social policy in pursuit of a better world for children.

In developmental processes and outcomes, the individual and the context are inextricably connected throughout the lifespan. As an individual from an unorthodox background, my academic career is full of continuities and discontinuities, as one of the most influential books from my advisor, Jerome Kagan, asserted. In retrospect, my upbringing gave me the cultural, ethnic, minority worldview. From the start my education gave me the opportunity to have essential intellectual tools and eventually become bicultural and critical of our academic field. Consistently and strategically, my scholarly, administrative, and volunteer work led to questioning and pushing boundaries of the dominant academic canon; this was achieved by making critical connections with like-minded scholars and institutions, and working directly at the top of mainstream scholarship, educational institutions, and professional organizations. A contextual developmental analysis of my academic trajectory provides evidence of the constant, powerful dialectic relationship of the individual and the context. It all makes sense now.

Strategy and Organizational Forms argues for the importance of closely considering the environment in which globally operating firms are embedded, along with the pressures that shape organizational orientations, strategies, and forms. It recognizes the primacy of context and explains how the forces of global integration and local responsiveness shape organizational orientations, strategies, and forms. Major organizational forms in multinational enterprises are described. The ways in which organizations grow includes a particular focus on acquisitions and strategic alliances including joint ventures. Approaches to global business by small- and medium-size enterprises are explored. Trends in organizing related to digital transformations and lateral collaboration are identified.

Understanding Culture defines culture and identifies why culture is such an important element of the international management context. International management is about leading people and implementing tasks with people across cultural borders. The starting point for effective international management behavior must be a deep understanding of culture. We set the foundation for culture as one of the important contexts of global management. We define culture, examine its different facets, analyze its impact on people, and explore important questions about the intersection of cultures and individual characteristics. Culture serves two important functions for groups. Culture makes action simple and efficient because it creates context for meaning, and it also provides an important source of social identity for its members.

This chapter is an introduction to foundational communication theories, concepts and models, examining both historical and contemporary approaches to understanding communication in society, mass media, and organisations. Have a look at any job advertisement and its selection criteria; effective communication skills are almost always mentioned. Strong communication skills are recognised as an asset in business. It is how we share information, seek assistance and delegate tasks. Conversely, poor communication can result in misunderstandings or the failed transmission of vital messages.

This chapter describes the communication process through fundamental communication theories and models. The discussion will define key terms and provide information about the relationship between the various elements of a communication event. This will give you the ability to predict what may happen in a communication event and increase the effectiveness of your communication. We address the basic assumptions we make when communicating and examine the various elements of the communication process in closer detail.

The chapter establishes the role of context in an analysis. This is done by defining context, presenting a context continuum that can be used to understand an object of study, and introducing the types of conditions that shape understandings of discourse. Six different approaches to studying context are discussed in this chapter: systemic functional linguistics, the SPEAKING model, frames, indexicality, contextualization cues, and next-turn proof procedure. After reading this chapter, readers will understand what context is and why it is important; be able to study context using different models and constructs; and know how discourse and context work together to create meaning.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of how emoticons and emojis are a human adaptation to online written conversation to compensate for the absence of non-verbal cues and physical context, but also an affordance of most written conversation to promote affiliation, creativity and play. The analysis highlights the role of emojis as ‘attendant activities’ (Jefferson, 1987) which express politeness (and impoliteness) and other pragmatic functions, including prosocial and anti-social behaviours, identities, contextualizations (physical/virtual), irony and meaning enhancement. By analysing the multiple, often overlapping interactional functions of emoticons and emojis, this chapter provides original insights into the unique role of emojis in children’s written conversation, highlighting some major differences between spoken and written interaction. Findings indicate that emojis fulfil interactional functions which go beyond simply replacing fundamental non-verbal, voice and contextual resources which are available to speakers in phone and face-to-face interaction. While further research in this area is required across different age groups and genders, the various categories of emojis identified in this chapter provide a comprehensive account of how children are likely to deploy and respond to these symbols in online interaction, and how multiple meanings are possible depending on the interactional context

Forgetting is a phenomenon that is familiar to everyone and among the most extensively investigated in psychological science. It is, therefore, quite surprising that forgetting is widely misunderstood by the layperson and even by researchers. Evidence for the permanence of long-term memories is presented, and the distinction between the accessibility and availability of memories is discussed. Search of associative memory (SAM) and retrieving effectively from memory (REM) models of forgetting are described and extended as a proposal for everyday forgetting.

In this chapter we consider two examples of the situation when the classicalobservables should be described by a noncommutative (quantum-like)probability space. A possible experimental approach to find quantum-like correlationsfor classical disordered systems is discussed. The interpretation ofnoncommutative probability in experiments with classical systems as a resultof context (complex of experimental physical conditions) dependence ofprobability is considered.

The chapter begins with the observation that global history has an ambivalent attitude towards explanation. In many cases, the mere presentation of sources and voices from many different parts of the world seems sufficient to justify a global approach. The need for explanation is ignored or even denied. In other cases, global explanation is eagerly pursued, but often at the expense of more complex explanatory models that incorporate factors at different scales. In this perspective, global explanations are claimed to be inherently superior and a privileged way of explaining historical phenomena. After a cursory survey of current positions on causality and explanation in general methodology and ‘formal’ historical theory, the chapter proposes a brief typology of explanatory strategies. It goes on to discuss the peculiarities of explanation within a framework of connections across great distances and cultural boundaries. The much-exclaimed concept of narrative explanation is found to be of limited value, as it underestimates the difficulties of producing coherent narratives on a global scale. Concepts offered in the social science literature, such as the analysis of mechanisms and temporal sequences, could be helpful in refining purely narrative approaches to explanation.