In this chapter we will disco≠≠≠ver that language variation is a normal characteristic of speech on all language levels: in the sounds of accents, words, in grammar but also in discourse. When speaking, we always face alternative choices, and these are determined by our regional and social backgrounds and by the context of situation. We will discuss the concept of the sociolinguistic variable in more detail and find that variation is rule-conditioned and systematic. We focus on all actors and factors involved: the social dimension of variation (individuals, groups, communities) and its social correlates (region, class, gender, ethnicity, education). Last but not least, we will look at the spread of innovative features and trace patterns of diffusion from individual speakers, the point of origin of change, throughout wider society (via processes such as actuation, diffusion, and embedding).

The second chapter in Part II (‘Performances of Power’) turns to a performative arena that is both fundamental to pre-modern societies and yet often forgotten – and that is particularly instructive for cross-cultural comparison. Darian Marie Totten discusses the organization of agricultural labour, not from an economic standpoint but with regards to its innate capacity to govern quotidian experience, endorse ideas of equality and inequality, and structure society. A similar avenue of inquiry is prevalent in Ryan R. Abrecht’s contribution on neighborhood encounters and the rhythm of social life (Chapter 7). In Totten’s take, labour, performed on elite estates and overseen by a court that claims ultimate superiority in knowledge and organizational skill, lies at the heart of social hierarchy and imperial statecraft. Building off theories of performance, the chapter first unravels the basic nexus of social reproduction and discrete agricultural activities – the communication of knowledge, its cyclical application and transmission into a structured workflow, among others. Resonance with real life, inevitably so, shapes and defines different social strata that are discussed in the chapter’s main section: the imperial court and elite landowners, estate managers, free and unfree tenants, and/or slaves. For each of these, Totten displays an ingenious investigative sense that makes voices heard and explores agencies, privileged and underprivileged alike. The bulk of evidence for the comparative study of context in Han China and the Roman Empire is of a literary nature, the Book of Han the Book of Later Han, Monthly Ordinances of the Four Seasons and the agricultural writings of Cato, Columella, and Varro, which figure prominently throughout. At the same time, Totten draws on the visual language of coinage, mosaics, and murals that signalled a forceful message to their ancient audiences: that agricultural performance was critical to the creation of the social cohesion around them. In conclusion, the chapter places its findings into communications between imperial ideology and its translation into the local horizon. Han Chinese and Roman culture relied heavily on agrarian activity, both economically and performatively. While both established similar practices in the amassing of resources, the performance of agricultural labour, argues Totten, followed rather divergent trajectories, with profound ramifications for the experience of empire.

Smiths analysis of the relationship between division of labour and the wealth of nations interpreted as per capita income is illustrated, through their connection with productivity. The division of labour also explains the existence and characteristics of social stratification and alienation. The classical tripartition in social classes – capitalists, landlords and workers – is discussed, considering both its explanatory value and its limits. Division of labour evolves through time: Babbages laws, Taylorism, the production chain, mechanization. The international division of labour and international value chains are considered. Marxs communist utopia with the disappearance of compulsory labour is recalled and confronted with less unrealistic utopias concerning the command structure within the firm or Ernesto Rossis labour army.

To find answers for the worldwide proliferation of constitutions we need to look at root causes: the sources of constitutions. These are found and human nature. Men are social animals. During human evolution our brains have been wired to work together in communities up to a maximum of 150 members (the Dunbar number). Beyond that number it is difficult to cooperate: we can only do that if there are form of artificial trust and recognition available: and that is what constitutions do and provide. Abstract - imagined - concepts that help us jump the Dunbar threshold and cooperate in large scale groups, and overcome our brain limitations for large scale cooperation

Chapter 10 examines the public health literature and research on well-being that suggests that being Black and middle class in America does not equate to overall positive health outcomes, due largely to prolonged exposure to racism. Chapter 10 investigates how being Black, middle class, and SALA impacts the health and well-being of the Love Jones Cohort and what coping mechanisms they employ to deal with the challenges they face. Chapter 10 reports that some Cohort members experience situational depression, situational anxiety, or situational loneliness usually stemming from feelings of stress, overwork, and frustration at their financial situations and/or jobs. Moreover, a good number of Cohort members report that their families – despite occasional negative feelings of obligation and responsibility toward them – serve as sources of support, guidance, and love. Many also emphasize the importance of close friendships and augmented families in maintaining well-being and providing a coping mechanism during times of high stress and anxiety.

In this chapter, Kearns traces the novel politics and communities developing in the neighboring Vasilikos and Maroni river valleys, to the east of the town of Amathus. Their commonly described position as a marginal hinterland provides an opportunity to explore rural dynamics at multiple registers. Survey data and rescue excavations form an evidentiary dataset with which to interrogate the generative ties between clusters of settlements and Amathus that produced unruliness across variable and interconnected scales. One critical theme is continuity and impermanence, and the differentiated patterns of access, appropriation, and management taken up by groups returning to sites of prehistoric and protohistoric occupation. Another is social stratification, which entails the development of local autonomous figures, potential community leaders, or members with elevated status. These actors advanced special relationships with Amathusian authorities and local groups through the construction of gathering places such as cemeteries and shrines. The chapter situates these dynamics in habitation, non-quotidian activity, and land use within a framework of a small near-shore world entangling rural sites with maritime economies.

This chapter is an enquiry into whether we can predict whether a particular instance of variation at the syntactic level may reflect social stratification or not (Labov 1966, 1972, 1994). Therefore, a range of syntactic variables in Dutch has been examined that may reveal social correlations in the spontaneous speech of 67 speakers who were born, grew up, and still live in one particular locality. Most of the syntactic variables consist of variants associated with the local dialect and (codified) standard Dutch. The syntactic variables examined differ in frequency of occurrence, synonymy/functional equivalence, abstract properties, and presumably noticeability. The fact that the social stratification of various syntactic variables can be investigated by following the same speakers within one speech style, i.e. the sociolinguistic interview,L12 offers a unique opportunity to carefully discriminate the effects of similar socio-demographic factors on different types of syntactic variables. The overall result is that social stratification of syntactic variation can be predicted where syntax maps onto discourse. The outcome is dependent on the extent of duration of language contact situations, and interactions in which particular linguistic variables have become socially meaningful depending on the individual and the wider societal, political and ideological context.

Chapter 5 moves beyond regional accents to the importance of speech sound patterns for speakers’ presentations of their affiliations and for listeners’ interpretations of others.The chapter considers what sociophonetics offers the understanding of language and the social world and outlines some of the fundamental ways that the major social categories of social class, gender, ethnicity and age impact phonetic variation and change.Taking each of these topics in turn, the chapter unpacks how sociolinguistic studies of socially driven variation have established a foundation that underpins contemporary sociophonetic research and then transitions to survey sociophonetic research that investigates the influence of these four social factors on speech production.The chapter then turns to the role of these factors in speech processing, providing an overview of how factors such as class, gender and ethnicity have been shown to affect how listeners process variation in speech.The chapter closes with a discussion of how such research has contributed greatly to our understanding of how social factors correlate with linguistic factors.

This chapter begins with a review of the early literature on William Labov’s 1972 concept of the linguistic lame, its influence on the study of African American English, and its role in shaping linguistic perceptions of middle-class speakers. The chapter then proceeds with a summary of the small, but growing, body of research on the use of AAE by middle-class speakers, including studies of social stratification, intraspeaker variation, performative language practices, and attitudes and perceptions. The chapter ends with an overview of the topics covered in subsequent chapters of the book.

Paul’s letters were written to communities of Christ-followers of the first century. This essay outlines some of the overarching features that shaped the Roman world in which Paul’s communities lived.

Rapid industrialization and urbanization leads at first to secular rates of social mobility. Who benefits and how this occurs. The slow change to circular mobility and the blockages to social ascent are examined.