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This book provides new insights into the creation and use of written texts in medieval Japan. Drawing upon lawsuits from Ategawa no sh¿ in central Japan between the early eleventh and early fourteenth centuries, the author analyses the use of writing by various social groups ¿ temple priests, warriors and peasants. Though these social groups had different levels of literacy and accordingly followed different communicative traditions, their use of writing had common features. In the semi-literate society of medieval Japan the dissemination and reception of written texts took place primarily through speaking and hearing. Documents of the medieval period therefore had a distinctly oral characteristic. Priests, warriors and peasants all alluded to motifs in their legal pleas that were in essence given by the oral world of tales, legends and gossip. By showing that literacy was not in conflict but interacted with orality, the author uncovers an important aspect of the use of the written word in medieval Japan.

The aim of this volume is to fill a long-recognised gap in communication, discourse and culture studies by providing descriptions and analyses of Chinese institutional interactions in various settings. This book contributes on the one hand to the latest developments of discourse studies with insights into the analysis of Chinese institutional interactions. On the other hand, this volume serves as a valuable resource for readers who intend to become acquainted with Chinese culture and institutional discourse. This volume contains contributions by some of the leading scholars in the field of Chinese discourse analysis. The contributions examine Chinese institutional interactions in various settings, including business negotiations, courtroom interactions, medical consultations, survey interviews, and business telephone calls.

The effects of globalization require that multinational corporations (MNCs) coordinate their differentiated but interdependent organizational parts and align them to a common purpose. This book examines the mechanisms that such organizations use to govern their global subsidiary networks. The book starts with a review of key concepts and theories of multinational organizations and explains the rationale for their existence. Based on this assessment and an empirical study of three globally operating entities, the author develops a framework for examining the cultural and structural governance mechanisms that multinational corporations may employ to coordinate their global operations. This framework identifies different configurations of cultural and structural governance mechanisms and explains what kind of configuration a multinational organization should employ to ensure efficient governance.

Historical and literary works from the Spanish Golden Age offer a wealth of information about the Spanish view of the conflict in the Netherlands during the Dutch Revolt and the ensuing Eighty Years¿ War (1568-1648). The war in the cold north was to become a fixed component in the lives of the Spaniards of the Golden Age for many years. This book reconstructs the images that the Spanish had of the Netherlands and its inhabitants. These images are inextricably intertwined with the picture that the Spanish constructed of themselves as participants in the conflict. This book follows the developments of these images from the construction of an image of the enemy that reached a climax between 1621 and 1648 and then gradually faded away. Which images and representations circulated the most, and where did they come from? Which rhetoric was used to present them to the public, and in which genres and contexts were they disseminated and preserved? On the basis of a varied collection of sources, war chronicles and plays, as well as pamphlets, poems, historical works and prose writings, the author illustrates the appearance of the Netherlands through Spanish eyes during the course of the Eighty Years¿ War.

This book examines frugality as an ideal and an ¿art de vivre¿ which implies a low level of material consumption and a simple lifestyle, to open the mind for spiritual goods as inner freedom, social peace and justice or the quest for God or ¿ultimate reality¿. By rational choice we can develop a more frugal and sufficient way of life, but material temptations can always overwrite our ecological, social and ethical considerations. But the spiritual case for frugality is strong enough. Spiritually based frugal practices may lead to rational outcomes such as reducing ecological destruction, social disintegration and the exploitation of future generations.