Terms Of Friendship Research Articles

Pittite Triumph and Whig Failure in the Cambridge University Constituency, 1780–96*

AbstractCambridge University has been featured in a wide range of studies of the long 18th century, but few have focused exclusively on the dynamics behind its politics. This is surprising since many of the Cambridge University electors were close to leading parliamentarians. The Cambridge University constituency was contested at each of the three successive general elections from 1780 onwards until 1796. Parliamentary contests often brought Cambridge University's political tensions into focus, which is why a detailed analysis of the poll books can demonstrate how different networks within the university behaved and could define the performance of candidates for the constituency. The relationships between the chancellors, vice‐chancellors, high stewards, university officers, college heads, fellows, senate members and members of parliament who collectively made up the leadership are fundamental to understanding the electorate of Cambridge University. These relationships, in terms of friendships, alliances and rivalries, also influenced political and patronage networks within the university. William Pitt the Younger's success in changing the political complexion of Cambridge University is part of the broader realignment in British politics during the final two decades of the 18th century. Under the pressure of these events, Whig unity would come to an end as new divisions between ministerialists and reformers emerged. The experience of Cambridge University can shed light on the national shifts as well as how electioneering was carried out in the university parliamentary constituencies.

Social support by communities for older adults in Malaysia

Purpose: Positive developments in the socioeconomic field have led to a reduction in mortality and fertility rates and an increase in the lifespan of individuals. This has reduced the young population and increased the old population. Senior citizens are being neglected, and loneliness is getting worse every day because of these circumstances. Therefore, in order to address the problem, there is a pressing urgency to identify how to provide support to older adults so that they can continue their daily lives easily without any problems or obstacles that can limit their activities. Social support refers to support in terms of emotions, friends, information, care, and management.
 Design/Methodology/Approach: A total of 397 questionnaire forms were distributed by purposive sampling to older adults aged 60 years and above in the Perak state and analyzed using descriptive statistical tests to obtain frequency, mean, and percentages for Social Science (SPSS) software.
 Findings: The results of the study showed that the older adults majorly agreed with the form of social support which was provided by the community. However, based on the social support, older adults are more likely to feel accompanied by neighbours, friends, or individuals. The study discovered that older persons prefer to be to be actively involved in the society, since this also enables them to deal with severe difficulties, circumstances, and fears. This preference is demonstrated by the total degree of social assistance provided and the daily activities of the older adults. 
 Conclusion: The availability of social support indirectly contributes to the well-being of older adults by addressing the neglect and loneliness they may face, enabling them to maintain active and fulfilling lives. It promotes active aging by fostering social connections, enhancing mental and emotional health, and empowering older individuals to participate fully in society.
 Contribution to Literature Review: Social support, encompassing community support, emotional support, peer support, and information support, contributes significantly to the well-being of older adults. These forms of support help address the issues of neglect and loneliness faced by older adults, enabling them to actively age and lead fulfilling lives. The literature highlights the importance of social support systems in promoting the well-being of older adults and emphasizes the need for comprehensive support from various parties to meet the growing needs of the aging population. The literature on social support for older adults has important policy implications for promoting their well-being and addressing the challenges they face such as strengthening community support systems and encouraging peer support programs.

Whatever Singularity in de Bernières’ Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

This paper explores Louis de Bernières’ novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin from the perspective of Giorgio Agamben’s concept of “whatever singularity”, the main theme of his The Coming Community. Agamben’s work provides a clear distinction from homogenized communities and nations to argue for the possibility of how groups and peoples living together without reducing their distinct individual and cultural identities to sameness. Besides, whatever singularities border ‘in-between’ spaces and thresholds and that is the space where friendship emerges from. In this context, the article aims to apply Agamben’s essay ‘The Friend’ to explore the concept of friendship. The novel is set mainly during the Italian and Nazi occupations of the Greek island of Cephalonia in World War II. Although occupying forces aim to constitute a fixed society, intercommunal friendship emerges between different nations. In this regard, the love between the Italian soldier Captain Corelli and the local girl Pelagia, as well as the friendship among Dr. Iannis, Captain Corelli, and Carlo Piero Guercio will be examined in terms of friendship and ‘whatever singularity’. Moreover, the friendship between ‘The Good Nazi’ Günter Weber, who is forced to shoot his Italian friends, and Captain Corelli will be investigated through the concept of friendship. In the narrative, the Communist Greek resistance group ELAS, a destructive occupying force, tries to form a fixed homogenous ideological group on the island bearing similarities with fascist and Nazi groups. Therefore, this will also be discussed in the context of the tension between heterogeneous and homogenous communities.

DISTINCTIVE COLLECTIVIST IDENTITY ON DIGITAL ADS: HARI RAYA AND LEBARAN 2021

Every family has a particular moment, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia, where the majority of the population is Muslim, where Eid al-Fitr has established a tradition for bringing family members closer together. Simply said, the tradition is known as "Hari Raya” whereas, in Indonesia, the term "Lebaran" is used. The year 2021 will be remembered for the social restraints put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This study aims to capture this once-a-year event, which will then be interpreted using Oswald's Marketing Semiotics strategy to juxtapose the two digital advertising media on the Youtube Channel for cellular operator brands in each country in the Interpretivism Paradigm using a qualitative approach based on Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Theory. The Hari Raya 2021 Maxis advertisement symbolizes the State of Malaysia, while the 2021 Lebaran advertisement from the Indosat Ooredoo Provider represents the State of Indonesia, both of which are displayed in binary opposition. The study's findings reveal a consistent pattern in promoting the country's collectivist identity, with marketing distinctiveness arising from a variety of key components. The dominant color is green, which has a characteristic Malaysian Muslim nuance in its advertising storyline with the theme "Raya Si Sakan," which represents the Malaysian Cultural Dimension of Short-Term Orientation and Masculinity. In contrast to the majority of the color yellow, the title "Bulan yang Baik," reflects the warmth of friendship in terms of the identical dimensions of Indonesian culture, which tends towards long-term orientation and femininity in terms of the majority of the color yellow.

"That Robot Played with Us!" Children's Perceptions of a Robot after a Child-Robot Group Interaction

The design of child-centred, intelligent and collaborative robots is a challenging endeavour, which requires to understand how the implemented robot behaviours and collaboration paradigms affect children's perception about the robot. This paper presents the results of a set of semi-structured interviews of N=81, 5 to 8 years old children who previously interacted in pairs with a robot in the context of a problem-solving task. We manipulated two different factors of the robot behaviour: cognitive reliability in logic game movements (optimal vs sub-optimal) and expressivity in the communication (expressive vs neutral) and we assigned the children in one of the four conditions. At post-intervention interviews, we examined children's perceptions on the robot's attributions, collaboration and social role. Results indicate that a robot's cognitive reliability shapes the helping relationship between the children and the robot, while the robot's expressivity impacts children perception of the robot supportive ability and friendship. Finally, results also indicate that, even if children interact in pairs with the robot, their perceptions about it remain individual, although a good collective task-performance seems to empower children perception of the robot in terms of friendship and reliability.

잠언 18:24의 번역 재고와 제안 ― 참된 우정에 관한 격언의 관점에서 ―

This paper revisits the translation of Proverbs 18:24 in the light of the sayings about true friendship. Proverbs 18:24 has been translated in various ways because of two words of the Masoretic text, that is, ‘אשׁ(’îš)’ and ‘להתרצצ(lĕhitro‘ēa‘)’.BR First, several bibles and commentaries construe אישׁ as a noun whose meaning is a man, translating it with the following word ‘רעים(re‘im)’ as a man of friends. They also consider the relation of אישׁ and רעים as the subjective genitive (a man who has friends) or the attributive genitive (a man who makes friends). However, this reading of אישׁ is neither grammatically correct nor contextually consistent. For this reason, the BHS apparatus suggests that אישׁ should be read as a particle ‘אשׁ(’iš)’ or ‘יש(yeš)’, which means there is. Such reading clearly makes the parallel between the first half and the second one through the same word יש or at least the same meaning, there is. Moreover, אשׁ or יש highlights the contrast between friends in the first half, and a friend in the second one.BR Second, some bibles and commentaries parse the word להתרעע as Hithpolel infinitive construct of Ⅱרעע whose meaning is to be beaten up. This reading results in the translation of the first half as follows: A man of friends comes to ruin or There are friends who ruin themselves. Yet, להתרעע gives rise to a weak opposition between to ruin in the first half and clinging to in the second one. Compared to the Masoretic reading of להתרעע, the BHS apparatus’s reading of ‘להתרעות(lĕhitrā‘ôt)’ is preferable to understand the meaning of the whole verse. Considering that להתרעע means to associate with, the verse draws a comparison between friends who want to associate with others and a friend who clings closer than his/her brother. Indeed, Proverbs 18:24 offers a lesson about true friendship in terms of being superior to kinship. Its emphasis on true friendship is also harmonious with other sayings about friendship in the book of Proverbs, especially focused on an association with wise friends, unconditional and selfless love, and a warning against disguised friendship.BR Therefore, this paper suggests the translation of Proverbs 18:24 as follows: There are friends who maintain superficial friendship, but there is a friend who clings closer than a brother.

KESETARAAN GENDER TERHADAP PEREMPUAN DALAM BIDANG PENDIDIKAN DI PERGURUAN TINGGI

Education is a right for everyone, both men and women, who have the right to get the same treatment and opportunities. The world of education should be a place to build good gender relations in social life. Gender equality means there are no different roles and positions between women and men in various aspects. Gender equality also refers to equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities for women and men. Now gender equality has begun to be realized in the field of education. As in the case of learning, for example, every student in the class is free to access knowledge and express their opinion. No one takes precedence or ends, whether it is male or female. However, there are still some treatments that seem to discriminate against women, for example, in terms of friendship. When women try to mingle with men, they are still often sidelined because they are considered troublesome. This study aims to determine what conditions occur in universities responding to gender issues. The method used in this research is a qualitative method with a descriptive approach. . Data collection techniques used in this study include observation, interviews, and literature study by searching from various sources relevant to this research. The method used in selecting informants is using the purposive sampling technique.

Friendship in Befriending? Older Service Users’ Notions of Friendship in a Befriending Scheme

ABSTRACT Social isolation and feelings of loneliness are main reasons that befriending services are approached by older adults. The promise of an individually matched volunteer, a befriender, paying them regular visits, offers hope of increased social interaction, meaningfulness, and connectedness in everyday life. The current consensus in qualitative research literature is that loneliness and isolation may be alleviated by such home visits. Still, the actual mechanisms of successful befriending have not been identified. In this small-scale qualitative study, we highlight older befriendees’ notions of friendship in befriending. Drawing on in-depth interviews with seven Norwegian befriendees over the age of 80 years, we suggest that having a befriender visit regularly spurs a new bond and supports befriendees’ notions of a relationship consistent with a traditional understanding of friendship. Our findings illustrate how the older befriendees identify and portray notions of friendship in terms of bonding, compatibility and meaningful activities, commitment, appreciation, and insecurities. Understanding how a formalized volunteer service is recognized and valued as a friendship may contribute to a better starting point for improving befriending services. Furthermore, it can improve our understanding of the significance of friendship in old age.

A Translation and Literary Analysis of Adebayo Faleti’s Poem: Ojo Ilayefun”

The concept of friendship in the Yorùbá cultural milieu is very germane to their communal life. Suffice to say that there seems to be no human being without, at least, a friend, the major issue usually is how well-grounded such friendship is, especially in times of need. Friendship development among the Yorùbá usually begins during the formative years via social interaction. However, sustaining such friendship through inter-personal relationship, which requires great sacrifices, is the most difficult aspect of it. This essay examines the Yorùbá concept of a mutual acquaintance, as depicted in one of Faleti’s poems titled “Ọjọ Ìláyẹfún.” The essay employs the hermeneutics model to undertake a literary analysis of the poem, which serves as the primary data for the study. By analyzing the representational meanings that are attributed to the concept of friend (òré in Yorùbá, the study shows that the term friendship has many metaphorical meanings in the traditional Yoruba worldview. The study also foregrounds the cultural, metaphorical, and metaphysical meanings of the Yoruba concept of mental imbalance (wèrè) beyond the conventional meaning or common knowledge about it in the Yorùbá socio-cultural milieu. The essay concludes that the Yoruba indigenous system, through several notions and metaphorical expressions about mental malady socially stigmatizes people suffering from such ailment. Mental pictures/images of incurability being rammed the native sub-consciousness, orthodox medicine has proved that it could be managed, suggesting that a lunatic could eventually be reformed, rehabilitated, and re-absorbed into the functionality of society.

KONSEP PERTEMANAN DALAM ETIKA NIKOMAKEA ARISTOTELES

As social beings who live side by side with agreed behavioral norms, making the relationship between individuals has an important position, the relationship in question is known as the term friendship. With this important element in the concept of friendship, it is not surprising that Aristotle discusses it specifically in two books at once in his work entitled Nicomachean Ethics, and places the concept of friendship as the main and indispensable thing in life. This study aims to explain in order to know the concept of friendship contained in Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics. The method used by the author in this study is a descriptive-analytical method with a qualitative approach, and a library research data collection technique. The results of the research and discussion obtained in this study include the position of the concept of friendship, as well as the classification of friendship in Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, especially in his VIII and IX books. It is said in his work, that no one will choose to live without a friend, even though he has been blessed with many good things in his life. So that in the concept of perfect or complete friendship according to Aristotle, namely the relationship between individuals who give each other good things, with reciprocity, and do it with full awareness. Aristotle said that if a friend is our other personal self, and what we get from a friend is a reflection of what we give too.
 Keyword: Aristotle, Friendship, Nicomachean Ethics.

İlkokul 4. Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Arkadaşlık Kavramına İlişkin Metaforik Algıları

This research aims to determine the metaphorical perceptions of primary school 4th-grade students about friendship. The study group of the study, which was carried out within the scope of the phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research designs, consisted of 144 4th grade primary school students studying in a public primary school in Istanbul Esenler in the 2021-2022 academic year. The data of the research were obtained through the semi-structured interview form (Friendship is like ……… Because ………..), which was prepared by the researchers and was finalized in line with the necessary expert opinions. The data obtained within the scope of the research were analyzed by content analysis. According to the findings obtained in the study, it was determined that primary school students perceived friendship in terms of values, skills, and emotional states. In addition, while defining friendship, the students mostly used values such as honesty and sincerity.

A Comparative Study of Power Distance of English Teachers and Non-English Teachers in Classroom Interaction in Iranian High Schools

Since cultural factors play a crucial role in creating behavioral patterns, investigating the relationship between English teachers and students can be a good index for discovering the level of power distance in the classroom environment with different cultures manifesting in their interactions. The current study has attempted to compare female high school students' viewpoints towards English teachers and non-English teachers in the Iran context to discover the difference in power distance between English and non-English teachers and their students. To this end, the present research was conducted in 3 high schools for females with female teachers, and the data was gathered through a five-item Likert scale questionnaire investigating students' viewpoints towards five main elements: Acceptability, Respect, Teaching method, behavioral patterns, and Friendship. The findings revealed a high power distance between English teachers and their students in an English class interaction than non-English teachers such as science teachers, math teachers, physics teachers, chemistry teachers, and art teachers and their students. In turn, the results implied positive viewpoints towards English teachers. Regarding four factors, Acceptability, Respect, Teaching method, and Behavior, there is a significant difference between the viewpoints towards English and non-English teachers. On the other hand, there is no significant difference between the two variables in terms of friendship.
 
 Received: 14 October 2021 / Accepted: 10 January 2022 / Published: 5 March 2022

Religion and Intergroup Boundaries: Positive and Negative Ties Among Youth in Ethnically and Religiously Diverse School Classes in Western Europe

BackgroundIn the past decades, Western European countries have become increasingly religiously diverse; furthermore, a growing share of their population is now youth with a migration background. Little is known about the role religion plays in social ties among children of native and immigrant origins.PurposeThis study examines religious group boundaries among youth in secondary schools in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. To this end, it describes to what extent youth’s positive and negative ties in the classroom are segregated along religious lines. Furthermore, it analyzes the role of structural opportunities and religious in-group preferences in the formation of religious boundaries in the social networks of youth.MethodsThe data come from the first wave of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), which contains more than 18,000 adolescents (aged 14–15) in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. First, we describe overall religious segregation in the social ties of youth by using the full survey data. Second, we test our hypotheses by analyzing the complete social networks of 5236 students in 247 classes.ResultsThe analysis reveals that friendships are more likely between classmates with similar religious affiliations than classmates with different religious affiliations. In particular, in terms of friendships, there is clear segregation between non-religious and Christian youth on the one hand and Muslim youth on the other. This segregation is partly driven by structural forces that constrain intergroup meeting opportunities. However, group segregation goes beyond the patterns expected from opportunities alone. The results show strong preferences for intrareligious friendships and a tendency to avoid ties between Muslim and non-Muslim youth.Conclusion and ImplicationsThere are religious boundaries in the social relationships of youth in ethnically and religiously diverse school classes in Western Europe. In particular, social boundaries between Muslim and non-Muslim youth are the strongest. Creating opportunities for positive intergroup contact, such as the promotion of religiously diverse schools, apparently is not sufficient to avoid religious boundaries among youth. To reduce segregation along religious lines, interventions would also need to address the factors that shape youth’s preferences for intrareligious friendships.

The Potential of Friendship: A Case for Social Resilience and New Care Optics

In this article, we call for greater recognition of friendship as a basic social relation that should play a pivotal role in re-imagining social resilience if it is to be future-proof in the face of social upheaval, such as the current pandemic. Drawing on existing research and early scoping of emergent information about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we suggest that friendship is an important component of heterogenic social realities. The specific focus of our discussion is twofold. Firstly, attention is paid to the narrow lens of social policy that privileges particular familial set-ups and living arrangements, and in doing so marginalises groups which are already disenfranchised; secondly, we consider the dangers of nationalism and Eurocentrism as they relate to these issues. We suggest that thinking in terms of friendship can open up new avenues of academic and political imagination, offering strategies with greater potential for building socially resilient communities.

Unter Freunden. Nähe und Distanz in sozialen Netzwerken der Spätantike by Seraina Ruprecht

Reviewed by: Unter Freunden. Nähe und Distanz in sozialen Netzwerken der Spätantike by Seraina Ruprecht Lisa Brunet Unter Freunden. Nähe und Distanz in sozialen Netzwerken der Spätantike Seraina Ruprecht Munich: C. H. Beck, 2021. Pp. viii + 360. ISBN: 978-3-406-77399-0 A friend in need is a friend indeed. From philosophical treatises to Euripedian tragedies, friendship is arguably one of the most prevalent themes in ancient Greek writings. Thus, it is unsurprising that friendship in Classical and Late Antiquity has long been at the center of scholarly debate. Whereas earlier studies have regarded terms such as philia and amicitia as "weapons of politics" (Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939], 157), recent work has tended to adopt a slightly broader view, highlighting the relationship with patronage as well as taking into account the emotional dimensions of ancient "friendship." Unter Freunden aligns with these contemporary tendencies but focuses more specifically on friendship in Late Antiquity, and relationships among Christians and non-Christians particularly, topics which have often been overlooked, as Ruprecht rightly remarks. Moreover, with her analysis of the letters written by Libanius as well as Christian authors such as John Chrysostom and the Cappadocian Fathers, she attempts to counterbalance the scholarly emphasis on western authors. Overall, three main research questions are formulated. First and foremost, this book attempts to grasp the social concept of philia in the fourth century. Secondly, specific forms of communication among friends are analyzed, with particular attention paid to expressions of proximity and distance. Finally, the question arises how the concept of philia changed through the increasing Christianization of the Roman empire and its relation to the Christian agape. In Chapter 1, Ruprecht defines friendship as "a cluster of social practices" (15) and she stresses the voluntary and interpersonal nature of this relationship between (near-)peers. Furthermore, she explains her preference to denote friendships in terms of "proximity" and "distance" as opposed to "inclusion" and "exclusion" in order to properly present the various gradations of friendship rather than to think of friendship in terms of absolutes. In this chapter, the problematic interpretation of the term philia as denoting friendship already becomes apparent. As she demonstrates throughout the book, philia does not necessarily correspond to present-day notions of friendship. On the contrary, some examples she provides could be described today as communication among acquaintances at best, frenemies at worst. The epistolary exchanges between Libanius and Anatolius of Berytus, praetorian [End Page 306] prefect of Illyricum, could be seen as examples of the latter (74–83). Chapter 2 concerns the extensive corpus of letters written by Libanius, who is described as a representative of the pagan elite. Following Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, Ruprecht argues that Libanius never rose to the rank of honoratus, for which she convincingly cites fragments from Libanius's corpus. His social prominence therefore ought to be explained through his status as a sophist. Indeed, sophists are known to have had considerable influence within the interactions between the cities of the Greek East and Roman authorities. Libanius's letters reveal his sizeable network of relationships among the social and political elites, ranging from Rome to Milan. A strength of this book is its critical analysis of the epistolary corpus that has survived. That is, most of the sources under analysis are Libanius's letters. Although they most likely were published posthumously, some aspects suggest that Libanius already intended a later publication. Particularly convincing is Ruprecht's theory about Libanius's editorial intervention and that he manipulated the evidence handed down to us. Thus, these letters ought to be understood as a conscious representation of Libanius and his contacts. Still, regardless of their reliability, the letters reveal contemporary norms and expectations of philia. More specifically, they reveal a continuing obligation to exchange favors. As a result, philia relationships contributed significantly to the cohesion of the upper classes. Particularly interesting are Libanius's descriptions of close interactions between friends in everyday life, such as private invitations, dinners and baths. Ruprecht reminds us that these details too were deliberately used for the portrayal of a stable philia in letters. In fact, the letters themselves are exemplificatory of the...

The Virtue of Husband and Wife: Understanding Marital Friendship in Aquinas (with a Little Help from Homer)

The Virtue of Husband and WifeUnderstanding Marital Friendship in Aquinas (with a Little Help from Homer) Scott G. Hefelfinger (bio) Introduction Thomas Aquinas is well known for drawing on Aristotle’s analysis of friendship in order to understand and to define charity. Less familiar is Aquinas’s approach to marriage in terms of friendship. “Marriage,” writes Aquinas, “is the greatest friendship,”1 and he elaborates this elsewhere by means of Aristotle’s threefold division of friendship: friendship of utility, of pleasure, and of virtue.2 This already contains a great richness to be explored, but Aquinas goes further, adding suggestively: “There is a virtue proper to both husband and wife that renders their friendship delightful to each other.”3 But what exactly is this virtue, and how does it relate to the three kinds of friendship? The Angelic Doctor does not say. Whatever this virtue is, we seem to stand in great need of it. The world today seems a stranger to the delight that Aquinas mentions and is instead overly familiar with serial cohabitation, broken homes, and more recently, what has been termed “sexless marriages,” which result in no small part from the proliferation of pornography. Such sadness, discontentment, and even despair in the arena of marriage renders Aquinas’s provocative remark all the more striking, and so this short article is an attempt to tease out its meaning. [End Page 126] To do this, I will draw from the theory of Aristotle and the poetry of Homer to put meat on the bones of Aquinas’s skeletal remark, namely, that there is a virtue proper to spouses. In a first step, I will argue based on Aristotle and Aquinas that there is an excellence specific to the coordinated and cooperative work of the household. In a second step, I will turn to Homer’s Odyssey, where, I propose, we catch a glimpse of what this mutual work looks like, and in particular the kind of friendship between equals that it entails. Taken all together, Aquinas, Aristotle, and Homer offer resources for a renewed vision of marriage that is strikingly relevant in a world longing for delight and pining for a renewal of culture—a renewal that begins with the friendship, and virtue, of husband and wife. Aristotelian Roots When, in the Summa contra gentiles, Aquinas speaks of marriage as “the greatest friendship,” he offers two reasons to justify the superlative: he holds that husband and wife are “united not only in the act of fleshly union, which produces a certain gentle association even among beasts, but also in the partnership of the whole range of domestic activity [ad totius domesticae conversationis consortium].”4 Admittedly, these reasons might seem a little thin. Indeed, it almost sounds like Aquinas is suggesting that what makes the greatest friendship between husband and wife is that they sleep in the same bed at night and make the bed together in the morning. Understandably, we’re left wanting a little more than that. If we turn to his commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, it helps us to appreciate that, as we expect, there is more going on here. The friendship between husband and wife is a complex, multi-faceted reality. One facet is its usefulness; it is a friendship of utility, Aquinas points out, since it “furnishes a sufficiency [of things] for family life.”5 Another facet of this friendship is that it is pleasant or pleasurable; thus, it is a friendship of pleasure, seen most clearly— but by no means exclusively—in marital intimacy. The last facet is [End Page 127] that related to virtue; Aquinas holds that marital friendship can also be based on virtue and thus it can reach the level of a noble or virtuous friendship.6 What is a virtuous friendship for Aristotle and Aquinas? Friendships are based on love and thus the precise object of love will determine the sort of friendship. Because friendships of utility and of pleasure are based on a love that targets some good other than a person, Aristotle sees them as incomplete or incidental. Complete friendship includes the dimensions of utility and pleasure but also goes beyond them. This...

Friends and strangers walking on graphs

Given graphs \(X\) and \(Y\) with vertex sets \(V(X)\) and \(V(Y)\) of the same cardinality, we define a graph \(\mathsf{FS}(X,Y)\) whose vertex set consists of all bijections \(\sigma\colon V(X)\to V(Y)\), where two bijections \(\sigma\) and \(\sigma'\) are adjacent if they agree everywhere except for two adjacent vertices \(a,b \in V(X)\) such that \(\sigma(a)\) and \(\sigma(b)\) are adjacent in \(Y\). This setup, which has a natural interpretation in terms of friends and strangers walking on graphs, provides a common generalization of Cayley graphs of symmetric groups generated by transpositions, the famous \(15\)-puzzle, generalizations of the \(15\)-puzzle as studied by Wilson, and work of Stanley related to flag \(h\)-vectors. We derive several general results about the graphs \(\mathsf{FS}(X,Y)\) before focusing our attention on some specific choices of \(X\). When \(X\) is a path graph, we show that the connected components of \(\mathsf{FS}(X,Y)\) correspond to the acyclic orientations of the complement of \(Y\). When \(X\) is a cycle, we obtain a full description of the connected components of \(\mathsf{FS}(X,Y)\) in terms of toric acyclic orientations of the complement of \(Y\). We then derive various necessary and/or sufficient conditions on the graphs \(X\) and \(Y\) that guarantee the connectedness of \(\mathsf{FS}(X,Y)\). Finally, we raise several promising further questions.Mathematics Subject Classifications: 05C40, 05C38, 05A05

Information Seeking and Collaborative Decision-Making Behaviour in Consultancy Project Teams: A Network Theoretic Viewpoint

Purpose – This study aims to examine how embeddedness influences consultants’ information seeking when making decisions within a social network of relationships, and how these social networks evolve throughout the project delivery stages. The study is grounded in social network theory and examines embeddedness from three perspectives: structural (network cohesion), relational (tie strength in terms of friendship and knowledge awareness) and actor prominence. Design/methodology/approach – A social network analysis (SNA) questionnaire was administered to a team of consultants working on a management consultancy project in Shanghai, China. The SNA measures of density, degree centrality and betweenness centrality were used to analyse relationship patterns among project team members, permitting comparison between the networks. Networks were also compared across the three project delivery stages of collect, consider and create. Findings – Structural embeddedness was observed in the active information seeking behaviour among consultancy team members. The moderate network density of the self-organising information seeking networks across the project delivery stages ensures that the team remains connected but avoids information redundancy and overload. Relational embeddedness was evident through the multiplexity of ties among team members with overlapping friendship and information seeking relationships. The knowledge awareness network’s sparseness indicates a team of autonomous knowledge workers with distributed expertise. Project managers were the most prominent actors across the three project delivery stages, underlining these actors’ relational leadership role. Practical implications – The study provides a deeper understanding of collaborative decision-making behaviours in dynamic-project environments. Limited attempts have been made to visualise and analyse the relationships involved in small consulting teams. The novelty of the network approach adopted stems from its ability to offer a structural view of the relationship among consultants, thus offering a distinctive and arguably more complete picture of consultancy team dynamics. Originality/value – The study validates the social network theory of embeddedness in a real-world collaborative decision-making setting and provides a deeper understanding of information seeking behaviours for decision-making in dynamic-project environments. From a project management process viewpoint, the evolving nature of the information seeking network as it changes across the project stages with associated actors’ roles was also visualised graphically, offering a distinctive and arguably more complete picture of consultancy team dynamics.

Information seeking and collaborative decision-making behaviour in consultancy project teams: a network theoretic viewpoint

PurposeThis study aims to examine how embeddedness influences consultants' information seeking when making decisions within a social network of relationships, and how these social networks evolve throughout the project delivery stages. The study is grounded in social network theory and examines embeddedness from three perspectives: structural (network cohesion), relational (tie strength in terms of friendship and knowledge awareness) and actor prominence.Design/methodology/approachA social network analysis (SNA) questionnaire was administered to a team of consultants working on a management consultancy project in Shanghai, China. The SNA measures of density, degree centrality and betweenness centrality were used to analyse relationship patterns among project team members, permitting comparison between the networks. Networks were also compared across the three project delivery stages of collect, consider and create.FindingsStructural embeddedness was observed in the active information seeking behaviour among consultancy team members. The moderate network density of the self-organising information seeking networks across the project delivery stages ensures that the team remains connected but avoids information redundancy and overload. Relational embeddedness was evident through the multiplexity of ties among team members with overlapping friendship and information seeking relationships. The knowledge awareness network's sparseness indicates a team of autonomous knowledge workers with distributed expertise. Project managers were the most prominent actors across the three project delivery stages, underlining these actors' relational leadership role.Practical implicationsThe study provides a deeper understanding of collaborative decision-making behaviours in dynamic-project environments. Limited attempts have been made to visualise and analyse the relationships involved in small consulting teams. The novelty of the network approach adopted stems from its ability to offer a structural view of the relationship among consultants, thus offering a distinctive and arguably more complete picture of consultancy team dynamics.Originality/valueThe study validates the social network theory of embeddedness in a real-world collaborative decision-making setting and provides a deeper understanding of information seeking behaviours for decision-making in dynamic-project environments. From a project management process viewpoint, the evolving nature of the information seeking network as it changes across the project stages with associated actors' roles was also visualised graphically, offering a distinctive and arguably more complete picture of consultancy team dynamics.

‘To all my friends, known and unknown, close and distant’

In ‘To all my friends, known and unknown, close and distant’: Or how to think about thinking about performance art, Jonas Rutgeerts advances ‘friendship’ as a method—a ‘conceptual personage’—to understand the relation between the knowledge that is developed in and through performing arts practices and the thinking about performing arts, most often produced within the academic field. Building on the work of French philosopher Maurice Blanchot the author highlights the ‘tacit’ element that is at the heart of this relation. Blanchot defines friendship in terms of discretion, as a relation that can only exist through the recognition of an interval that, ‘from me to this other who is a friend, measures all that is between us’. This interval prevents me from speaking about my friends, reducing them to a topic of conversation. According to Blanchot, we can only speak to our friends, acknowledging their irreducible otherness or strangeness. Similarly, thinking about the knowledge that is produced through performance should take on the form of a ‘separation-relation’, a relation that does not try to fuse dance and theory into one all-encompassing theory, but takes the fundamental alterity of both fields as a starting point for the creation of a singular and always changing dialogue.