This chapter tracks the development of laterals across three generations of Punjabi–English bilinguals living in England. These speakers are hypothesized to speak a Punjabi-influenced contact variety of English that is typically called "British Asian English." In this study, we aim to understand the processes of phonetic and phonological transfer that led to the formation of British Asian English, and how phonetic variation is subsequently adapted and modified by a community. Our study finds that first-generation (Gen1) speakers produce phonetically similar laterals across languages and word positions, suggesting that they have a single crosslinguistic category. In contrast, second- (Gen2) and third- (Gen3) generation speakers show clear acquisition of allophony in English, yet these patterns do not resemble the system reported for the local monolingual accent. Gen3 speakers further show the greatest phonetic distinctions between their English and Punjabi. The results suggest that the English of younger speakers is developing into a distinctive accent that bears similarity to that produced by other British Asian speakers across the UK.

Chapter 2 builds a comprehensive framework explaining how nondemocracies use participatory technologies to shore up their regimes. The chapter argues that participatory technologies act as a means of information gathering and dissemination and mitigate principal–agent problems. Moreover, the chapter details how participatory technologies can strengthen legitimacy – and who is most likely to buy into them.

This chapter examines the view that state creation requires the existence of a normatively legitimate government. It begins by defining governmental legitimacy, arguing that it is best analysed in terms of the moral justifiability of individual acts of governance, whether viewed individually or in aggregate. Next, it considers what it means for institutions, social conventions, and legal principles to be legitimate before moving on to consider the negative argument that no theory of state creation that excludes a criterion of governmental legitimacy could ever be morally plausible. Having dismissed this objection as mistaken, the chapter then examines a range of legitimacy-based reconstructions, which draw respectively upon the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant, and John Locke. Each position is critiqued and dismissed as an implausible approach to the law of state creation.

In this final chapter we delve into the expansive outreach of our role as school librarians, to every corner of the wider school community. We explore the practical application of our unique skills, to become networking agents by fostering connections between individuals both within the school and beyond, as they embark on their own quests for information and discovery. This interconnectedness brings about immense benefits for the school, and for us as school librarians. We often find ourselves at the heart of these valuable connections.

As we delve into our multifaceted role, we serve as gatekeepers, influencers and introducers, facilitating meaningful interactions that enrich the educational landscape. Drawing on the knowledge accumulated throughout this journey, we reflect on its practical implementation in our daily practices. This chapter serves as a culmination of our exploration, underscoring the significant importance of the school librarian as a catalyst for knowledge dissemination and collaboration.

Competencies for networking

School librarians are often well suited to network with others as we have several key attributes:

• ■ We are information and literacy specialists, possessing a vast wealth of knowledge about resources for study and recreation. This expertise allows us to connect with other professionals in the field, facilitating the sharing of information and knowledge.

• ■ By the intrinsic nature of our job we are skilled communicators, trained to engage effectively with the various users of our services – students, staff and community members. Our strong communication skills enable us to build relationships and establish connections with ease.

• ■ We are inherently collaborative, accustomed to working in teams and recognising the significance of co-operation, collaboration and co-design. This enables us to network effortlessly and form partnerships in pursuit of common goals.

• ■ We have a strong community orientation, possessing deep holistic insights into the needs of the school community we serve. Unlike many other members of staff we have a cross-curricular approach to our work, which enables us to identify and connect with other school employees and external organisations that can support the school, such as university or public libraries, and local businesses.

In the chapters that form the first part of the book, I asked the reader to view the monarchy of Hieron II as one fundamentally akin, in both principle and practice, to the forms of autocratic rule familiar to us from the Successor kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean. The surviving evidence – both literary and material – offers clear witness to the flexible approach taken by Hieron and his court in service of legitimating his political authority over the cities of southeastern Sicily. Moreover, it reveals that the modes of communication and display emanating from the royal capital at Syracuse were fashioned in a manner receptive to contemporary trends taking place in the courts of the Successor kings. We see this, for instance, in Hieron’s early efforts to wrap his claims of legitimate political authority in the cloak of military power, grounded in demonstrable success on the battlefield.

This chapter takes us to the classical precursors of the cinema and its pre-modern origin. The camera obscura was the earliest film apparatus, and Aristotle was believed to have known of it. The chapter next describes pre-cinema and traces this concept’s influence and its ramifications. While the moving bodies in prehistoric cave paintings were the first to exhibit cinematism, archaic Greek poet Simonides expressly pointed to the affinities between word and image; the Augustan Roman poet Horace later put them in canonical terms: ut pictura poesis. The chapter then surveys the pre-cinematic nature of ancient visual arts by interpreting a variety of examples (the Minoan fresco of bull jumpers, Greek vase paintings, the Roman Alexander mosaic, Trajan’s Column, many others) and introduces the rhetorical principles of enargeia (“vividness”) and epic ecphrasis. The chapter closes with an appreciation of the ingenious stage automata of Damascius and Heron of Alexandria.