Elite Society Research Articles

An Unpublished Inscription From the ʾAwām Sanctuary of ʾAlmaqah: New Evidence for a Royal mqtwy and Sabaean Campaigns in the ‘Land of the Abyssinians’

ABSTRACTThis article presents an unpublished Sabaic inscription from the ʾAwām sanctuary of ʾAlmaqah, near Maʾrib. The inscription sheds new light on the mid‐third century ad adventures of a mqtwy (‘officer’) of the Sabaean kings already known from epigraphic evidence: Whbʾwm Yʾḏf. It attests to him waging previously unknown campaigns in ‘the land of the Abyssinians’ (ʾrḍ Ḥbs2t) alongside his own mqtwy, who subsequently dedicated the inscription, with a bronze statue, in thanksgiving to the deity. This is the only military, rather than diplomatic, Sabaean mission abroad to the land (ʾrḍ) of the Abyssinians so far attested. Wider evidence invites us to reconstruct Whbʾwm's extraordinary career and identify an overlooked religious dimension to the mqtwy's function. The inscription shows that divine thanksgiving from mqtwy for monarch took identical form lower down the social hierarchy, adumbrating not only the reciprocity and ritual that underpinned Sabaean elite society, but also the impact of Abyssinian hostilities at a pivotal moment in the twilight of Sabaean history.

«Душа моя Павел» Алексея Варламова: роман и постановка в РАМТе

The article examines A. Varlamov’s novel “My Soul Pavel” and its production at the Russian Academic Youth Theater (RAYT). The research methodology is based on the hermeneutical approach, and also relies on the techniques of narratological and intertextual analysis. As a result of the analysis, the features of the genre nature of the work are established; its mythopoetic basis; the functioning of the intertext in the novel; the ratio of the author and the hero. The author shows a change in the dramatization of the original conception of the novel by his grandmother. In the structure of the novel, the author refers to the artistic possibilities of such techniques as intertextuality and autocitation. These techniques are aimed at an educated audience and connect the text with routine postmodern poetics. Varlamov’s scientific erudition and writing professionalism are manifested in a demonstrative reliance on a liminal plot and an initiation scheme. The genre characteristic of the work given by the author is ‘the novel of growing up’. In addition, the novel uses the plug-in genre of vision. In the image of the main character Pavel Nepomiluyev, such important features of the Russian mentality as the traditional idea of wandering and the cult of power formed by the Soviet era are combined. The relationship between the author and the hero is considered through the prism of M. M. Bakhtin’s concept and is classified as characteristic of romantic literature. The hero’s growing up implies his discovery of the negative aspects of Soviet reality: such as irresponsible management, theft, national problems, and the death of the village. The novel establishes an understanding of the elite of society as people who are first and foremost distinguished by their love for their Motherland. In the play “My Soul Pavel” in RAYT, playwright Polina Babushkina changed the concept of the novel, shifting the focus to criticism of the Soviet way of life. The mystical storylines of the text have been eliminated from the production, including an important episode of the vision for the meaning of the whole. However, there are interesting staging solutions in the play: reading a fragment of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, an independent musical series involving a variety ensemble. As a conclusion, it is said about the modernity and artistic independence of the novel, as well as that the play is able to live on the stage of the theater, having internal resources for modification.

Background, Origins and Changes of the Lithuanian Business Elite Companies 1995–2004

The article analyses the largest Lithuanian companies, their background, change, origin and other major characteristics in the period of 1995–2004. This period was chosen because it was only from 1995, after the end of the first phase of privatisation, that a layer of major entrepreneurs emerged in Lithuania, which was undergoing the most significant changes until 2004. The study uses lists of the largest Lithuanian companies by turnover, covering 200 companies for each selected year. The analysis focuses on the factors which contributed most to the change in these lists, and on the way how the companies on the lists changed in terms of the year of their establishment, place of establishment, economic sectors, and financial indicators. A separate part of the paper is devoted to the origin of the largest business enterprises, while identifying and analysing change in terms of the origin. The study makes use of various encyclopaedic and media sources and the statistical data, published memoirs and interviews. The analysis shows that the largest business enterprises in Lithuania changed fundamentally during the period under consideration, especially in terms of the dominant economic sectors and the origin of the business.

The Great Experiment: race and authorship in Shonda Rhimes’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

Abstract In 2023, Shonda Rhimes’s Queen Charlotte premiered on Netflix. The series is a prequel to the streamer’s hit series, Bridgerton (2020–present), itself an adaptation of Julia Quinn’s popular series of romance books. In Bridgerton’s colour-conscious British Regency setting, the marriage of Queen Charlotte, who is Black, and King George, who is white, led to the racial integration of elite society. Queen Charlotte, written and produced by Rhimes, gives the context for their love story. Although Rhimes is known for the diversity of her television shows, this series represents her most sustained engagement with issues of race. It is also her most personal work. The story of young Charlotte reflects Rhimes’s own, as a Black woman who rose to power within a white-dominant institution. Queen Charlotte understands race not primarily as identity or culture, but as a tool used by institutions to distribute power. While Bridgerton preserves the optimistic attitude of the romance novels, Queen Charlotte ends with more ambivalence, reflecting both the sincerity of its concerns and the sensibility of its creator.

The Catholic Elite and the Issue of Loyalty During the Great War in Australia

ABSTRACT The historiography of the Great War in Australia tends to emphasise the ostracisation of the Irish Australian Catholic community from the dominant discourse of imperial loyalty espoused by Australia’s Anglo-Protestant majority. Such readings have neglected the Catholic elite, whose support for the war, and later conscription, aligned with the higher-status Protestant elite. It was from the latter group that established Catholics sought acceptance and in whose ranks they sought inclusion. The navigation between those ambitions and the loyalty demanded by the church and its working-class following effectively bifurcated the Catholic community along class lines during the Great War in Australia. This article examines the attitudes of the Catholic professional and commercial elite to the war and conscription to determine the extent to which those attitudes were shaped by the cultural hegemony of Protestant elites in wartime Australia. It argues that Catholic elites adhered to Protestant norms of Britishness and imperial loyalty to combat the perceptions of Irish and Catholic treachery and to secure their positions within elite society.

A Study on Market Volatility of Selected Blue-Chip Companies in India

This research investigates stock price volatility among India's top five Elite companies—Infosys, Wipro, Reliance Industries, Hero MotoCorp, and TCS—focusing on factors influencing price changes. Analyzing metrics such as EPS, market capitalization, dividends, ROI, and cash flows from 2019 to 2024, the study identifies trends in financial health and stability. The companies demonstrate growth in earnings, market cap, and dividends, showing resilience and strong investor confidence. The findings underscore the importance of ongoing financial assessment and market awareness for informed investment strategies

Academic Community – the Target of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR

Starting from the very beginning of the Soviet occupation, the academic community became the target of the Soviet government. The government aimed to break the elite of society because of its potential and real resistance against the system and to subject it to its policies. Education and science institutions, therefore, were very important in the fight of the Soviet regime for human consciousness. Education was to be used for Communist indoctrination and instilling the values of the worldview important to the Soviet regime both in the country and outside the country. In addition, science institutions had an important role to play in the Cold War race with the West in the areas of science, technology and industry. With their discoveries, scientists had to help create the superiority of the Soviet system against the West. Furthermore, in the guise of scientific relations with the West, there was an opportunity for “intelligence activities”. The KGB, using its resources, helped the Communist Party implement its objectives in conjunction with the academic community. The KGB paid great attention to the behaviour of the representatives of the academic community, their attitudes towards government policies and other issues, monitored their relationships, analysed anti-Soviet manifestations among students and lecturers, and sought to identify and eliminate people who according to the authorities were unreliable. A network of agents was established for the implementation of these tasks, but it was not as broad as the KGB desired. Lithuanian scholars and scholars of the Lithuanian diaspora served both as the tool and the target of the implementation of the Communist Party propaganda campaigns. Achievements demonstrated by Lithuanian scientists in the West had to declare the progress of the Soviet system and also to discredit political campaigns by the diaspora. Scholars recruited by the KGB had a none-the-less important role to play in carrying out the KGB tasks of technical and industrial espionage in the West and thus helping create the image of superiority of the Soviet Union. Conferences and internships both in the West and in Lithuania were the perfect medium for collecting a variety of scientific and technical information. KGB agent reports show that achievements in medicine and in particular in the laser area, dominated in the records obtained by the agents.

GOALS AND CONTENT OF LANGUAGE TRAINING OF SPECIALISTS IN RUSSIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

In this article, we will talk about the socio-economic importance of higher professional education, the scientific research carried out to increase its status and effective strategies for its improvement, the innovative paradigm of higher education, the role and necessity of higher professional education in the formation of the intellectual elite of society. will go. Also, the issue of the linguistic component of the block of humanities, which determines the content of the comprehensive training of specialists in this field, and the integrated scientific and methodological concept of teaching students to professional speech communication are discussed.

Polite Social Practices in 18th-century Scotland

This article explores the role and influence of elite women in 18th-century Scotland, focusing on their engagement with polite social practices during the Scottish Enlightenment. The Scottish Enlightenment, characterized by its integration of various disciplines and emphasis on both theoretical and practical knowledge, was a period of significant cultural intellectual development. Central to this movement was the concept of politeness, which shaped the social interactions of the elite and played a crucial role in their personal and societal advancement. Elite women were integral to the social fabric of this era, participating in mixed-gender activities and shaping the cultural landscape through their involvement in social gatherings, education, and print culture. Despite being formally excluded from public office and direct political power, these women exercised significant influence through social networks, family ties, and patronage, subtly navigating the political and intellectual currents of their time. The study highlights how these women, while adhering to socially accepted norms, found ways to circumvent formal exclusions, thereby contributing to the broader cultural and political life of Scotland. Their participation in polite sociability not only facilitated their integration into elite society but also played a vital role in the broader program of social improvement that characterized the Scottish Enlightenment. This article underscores the complex interplay between gender, power, and politics, revealing how elite women helped shape “The Golden Age” of Scotland through their engagement in polite social practices.

Decisions of Women and Society's Elite "Review of Alqur'an Verses (Perspective of Fii Zilalil Qur'an's Interpretation)"

This study aims to explore and analyze the theme of women's deceit and the elite of society presented in the Qur'an, using an interpretive approach from Tafsir Fii Zhilalil Qur'an by Sayyid Qutb. Through this interpretive study, the researcher seeks to understand how the Qur'an describes the character and strategies used by women and the elite of society in the context of deceit, as well as the moral and social implications contained therein. This study uses a qualitative method with a descriptive-analytical approach to examine relevant verses and interpret their meanings in historical, social, and cultural contexts. The results of the study show that the Qur'an acknowledges the existence of women's deceit as a diverse phenomenon, both carried out by women and the elite of society, and teaches humans to recognize and overcome such deceit through wisdom and strong faith.

Civil society ethos? Attitude differences between civil society elites and the population in Sweden

Previous studies have found that elites differ from the general population not only in terms of their demographic and social composition but also with respect to policy preferences and attitudes. When it comes to civil society organisations, the issue of representation and representativeness of top-level leadership is of particular relevance, since a small number of individuals are expected to act on behalf of groups and causes that are not well acknowledged or even suppressed by other societal actors. Using two survey studies, this study compares the demographic composition and attitudes of the top-level leaders of the most resourceful civil society organisations in Sweden with those of the general population. We find that civil society elites are not demographically representative of the general population and that they also differ in attitudes when it comes to levels of trust, political orientations, satisfaction with democracy, and acceptance of income inequality. What is more interesting, however, is that the differences in attitudes cannot be fully explained by the skewed demographic characteristics of the civil society leaders, indicating that there might be distinctive sets of values and attitudes underpinning a ‘civil society ethos’.

The Scholar-Fighter: Chang Nai-zhou and His Book on Martial Art

The article explores the theoretical foundations, practical techniques and social context of the martial art school created in the late 18th century by Chang Naizhou, a native of Henan рrov. An educated man, Chang left a detailed description of the principles and methods of his school. The legacy of Chang Naizhou and the emergence of a large number of enthusiasts of martial arts among the educated elite of society indicates the formation in Qing China a new synthesis of elite and popular culture, which combined the traditions of Confucianism, Taoist and Buddhist selfcultivation and the folklore motifs. A stratum of professional fighters emerged, closely integrated both with the local society and its paramilitary formations (self-defense units, sworn brotherhoods, associations of participants in temple festivals, schools of martial arts, etc.) and the ruling elite of the empire and its military administration. At the heart of Chang Naizhou's method is the concept of configurations of force (shi 势), which are created by the action of the vital energy of the organism (so-called qi 气) and in turn strengthen and direct this action. The primary substrate of this energy is the so-called "centered qi", which in the spiritual-somatic practice of martial arts generates a great variety of properties and qualities of life experience and makes possible the unity of consciousness and physical body. The force in this case is the result of an interaction of the polar elements of Being. Chang Naizhou introduces many original concepts and techniques of martial art, but his outlook is determined by the common arsenal of Chinese tradition. Thus, his school reflected the nature of the whole Chinese civilization: the diversity of forms rooted in a comprehensive structural unity.

Searching for Traces of the Shi in Tombs of the Jin Dynasty

AbstractScholars of Jin history have noted a flourishing literati culture after the mid-Jin period, but excavated tombs suggest a more complicated picture. The shi, referring to literati without official titles, constituted a prominent group in Northern Song tombs, as evidenced by their epitaphs, but this group appears to have nearly vanished from the Jin tombs. To search for traces of the shi, this article comprehensively examines the social elites’ tombs with burial inscriptions and ink writings, where the shi would most likely be laid to rest. It shows that the text and paratext of epitaphs, as well as the tombs that yielded them, contain direct information about the shi and their interactions with other officials and non-official elites. Analysis of ink writings suggests that the shi played a role in the advanced literary expression in the tombs of some non-literati local elites. Examining these traces of the shi in tombs allows us to reintegrate them into broader society, investigate their interactions with other elites, and attain a more holistic understanding of Jin elite society and culture.

Образовательная эмиграция белорусов: социально-политические аспекты

The subject of the study is the problem of mass emigration of young people and students from the Republic of Belarus. The analysis of the current situation in Belarus, as well as the results of the survey of Belarusian students studying in Poland, show that a special role in the educational emigration of Belarusian youth is played not by economic factors, but more by political and social factors. Educational emigration subsequently turns into channels for Belarusian youth to leave for permanent residence. The country loses the future intellectual elite of society: highly educated people, future scientists, highly professional specialists in all spheres of the national economy. Emigration has acquired impressive scale, which leads to a huge crisis in Belarusian education and society as a whole. For receiving countries, educational migration serves as a tool to increase the country’s competitiveness in the world market.

Civil society elites: managers of civic capital

The article takes the first steps towards a general theory of civil society elites, a concept not fully developed in either elite or civil society research. This conceptual gap hampers academic and public understanding of the dynamics at the top of civil society. To address this, the authors rely on the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu to build a theory of civil society elites as managers of civic capital. This role is illustrated through examples from the differently institutionalised UK and Nordic civil societies. The first part of the article introduces the notion of civic capital and its emergence during the 19th century. The second part focuses on elite positions in civil society fields, demonstrating how civil society elites, as managers of civic capital, navigate between their constituents and other elite groups. These elites wield the power to consecrate social relations while misrecognising their own symbolic and economic gains. Recent scandals in the climate movement and UK and Nordic civil societies shed light on the symbolic aspects of the positions of civil society elites. This comprehensive analysis contributes to elite and civil society research and enriches public discussions about the role of civil society leaders in society.

The royal Welsh agricultural society: Patronage and the reproduction of elites in rural Wales

This paper is concerned with the reproduction of rural elites and the role of volunteering and participation in rural civil society institutions. Set in the context of popular discourses of the gentleman farmer and the agricultural elite as historic (as opposed to contemporary) leaders in the countryside, this research extends longstanding debates on rural class politics and gentrification, and resonates with a renewed sociological interest in the elites in society. Focusing on senior volunteer roles in the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society (RWAS), we explore the connections between social and cultural capital, the maintenance of moral boundaries, and the relationship of these processes with recruitment at the committee level. Our findings indicate that systems of patronage remain significant in rural contexts, and that these systems interrelate with professional and business fields, and with embedded social and intergenerational networks. Data depicts an organisation that is looking to balance the sustained benefits to organisational capacity brought through longstanding obligations of public service, duty, and family ties, with an acknowledged need to recognize diversity and foster inclusivity. This requirement, however, is largely articulated and confined to considerations of gender, age and to a lesser extent, multiculturalism.

Mapping civil society elites: multi-dimensional measure of resource stratification in civil society (MMRSC)

This paper presents a novel methodological approach, multi-dimensional measure of resource stratification in civil society (MMRSC). The method aims at mapping civil society organisations based on different types of resources for studying resource stratification in civil society. The approach is based on six indicators consisting of economic, political, and media resources, internal and external to civil society. The MMRSC is a development and adaptation of the positional method within the elite research tradition aiming at identifying individuals holding central positions in powerful organisations. To be able to apply the positional method to civil society studies, the paper argues for a multi-dimensional understanding of resources taking into account diverse organisational forms and goals within civil society. The method is presented in a systematic step-by-step structure with exemplifications based on how it has been used in a study of civil society elites in four European countries and at the EU level.

The fortified site at Lanaken near Maastricht (Belgium/the Netherlands). New insights on early medieval military and elite strategies in the middle Meuse valley

Archaeological excavation near Maastricht (the Netherlands) in the town of Lanaken (Belgium) revealed a previously unknown wooden‐and‐earth fortified site dating back to c.650–800. The fortification's construction, layout and dimensions are indicative of Roman military practice, suggesting active application of this practice during the early medieval period. This research delves into the implications of this discovery, shedding light on early medieval military strategies in the region and providing insights into potential historical contexts surrounding the fortified sitecation's construction and use. In so doing, it makes an important contribution to ongoing discussions regarding the nature of early medieval military organization and elite society.

Researching elites in the Italian third sector: how formal position and substantial influence interact

The issue of leaders’ influence has not received much attention in civil society studies, classical leadership literature on the voluntary sector and elite research. This article explores self-representations of the different kinds of status and influence among Italian third sector leaders. It is based on 35 interviews with the leaders of major Italian third sector organisations and on an analysis of the self-representations of their status and influence and representations of their civil society colleagues. Following a critical anthropological perspective, it argues that a qualitative investigation of the different forms of influence can help to broaden scholarly understanding of the growing power stratification in the third sector and the elements that seem to be required for being considered a key leader actor or a civil society elite.

Distribusi Harta Milik Negara Perspektif Ibn Taimiyah

Normatively, the provisions regarding the distribution of state property in Islam have been regulated in the Quran. However, for an interest, the distribution turned out to be done outside of what was mentioned by nas. This study explores Ibn Taymiyyah's thoughts on the distribution of state property that are not explicitly mentioned by nas. This is a literary study that explores Ibn Taymiyah's economic thought. The main source of this research is Ibn Taymiyyah's work entitled al-Siyasah al-Shar'iyyah fi-Ishlah al-Ra'i wa al-Ra'iyyah. The study concluded that state property could be given to the elite of society (ru'asa'). The elite of society in question is the elite of the society both of non-Muslim societies and of the elites of Muslim societies