This chapter lays the foundational framework for the relation between language, culture, and identity. Through an analogy, it illuminates the developmental parallels between heritage language and the rhizomatic growth of bamboo. Introducing the method of serial narrative ethnography, it underscores the significance of narrative knowing across the lifespan as a means for scientific understanding and the power of multiple stories through voices. It also presents an outline of the book.

Although sleep is measurable, the assessment of insomnia does not typically rely on using objective measurements. Nevertheless, there may be circumstances where objective assessment is warranted. This chapter describes the role of and place for objective estimates of sleep such as polysomnography, actigraphy, commercially available personal devices, and physiological assays, and weighs up the evidence for these.

Chapter 16, As for the future of England (August 21 - September 17). As the Banque de France and NY Fed loans to Bank of England are used, a French and US loan to the British government is contemplated and arranged through J.P. Morgan and with assistance from the NY Fed and Banque de France. The arrangement leads to the ’bankers’ ramp’ accusations and the relationship between Harrison and Harvey deteriorates. Harrison visits Norman who is unhappy with the Bank for England’s and Harvey’s actions and the decision to peg sterling to the US dollar at 4.86. J. P. Morgan also question the policy of the Bank of England and wonders why Harvey doesn’t raise the bank rate. Harvey seems to be focused on forcing the British government to cut the budget, adn the BIS argues that Great Britain is now the European country with the most serious financial conditions.

In the previous chapter, I have discussed the process of professionalisation in the INC as evinced in its evolution from a mass-bureaucratic party to an (increasingly) electoral-professional party. This has entailed a growing dependence on technological solutions and data fetishism to correct for the perceived weakness in the party's organisational strength, thereby leading to an increase in the influence of party employees vis-à-vis party bureaucrats. This chapter provides a contrasting trajectory of internal professionalisation through the case study of the BJP. Much like the INC, professionalisation in the BJP can be found in different enclaves within the party where party employees perform tasks in domains ranging from campaign management to data analytics.

Scholars have frequently paid attention to the fact that the BJP has one of the strongest and most institutionalised party machinery throughout the country (Basu 2005; Jaffrelot 1996; P. Jha 2017b). Thus, a focus on the BJP becomes analytically instructive to understand the ways in which cadre-based parties can retain their organisational strength, ideological coherence and independent identity in an era of professionalisation. At the same time, the BJP is also unlike most other political parties. It is unique insofar as its organisational structure is inextricably linked to the wider Hindu nationalist movement in India and thus cannot be understood without taking into account the ‘division of labour’ within the Sangh Parivar—the family of Hindu nationalist organisations at the helm of which is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It should be noted that the relationship between the RSS and the BJP is a complicated one, and at many points in history there have been moments of disagreement and divergence between the leadership of the two organisations. Notwithstanding these occasional differences, since the mid-1980s the functioning of the BJP has carried the unofficial imprimatur of the RSS leadership. The close coordination between the two has been made possible through the imprint of the RSS that is writ large in the organisational machinery of the BJP. We can detect this imprint in four major ways.

First, since its establishment, the senior leadership of the BJP has been drawn from the ranks of dyed-in-the-wool RSS swayamsevaks and pracharaks.

According to a study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), one of the top associations of commerce and industry professionals in India, by the time of the 2014 general election, political consulting in India had grown to become an INR 7–8 billion industry (ASSOCHAM 2014). It was estimated that there were nearly 150 political consulting firms actively operating in India—both in major cities and in small towns and rural areas—that could charge anywhere up to INR 5 million for each constituency in which they were working. These firms could offer services including, but not limited to, voter profiling, media management, PR, campaign planning and constituency-based research, with some candidates using such firms even outside the election season.

The sudden rise and meteoric expansion of political consulting firms in India appears nothing short of miraculous if we note that before 2014, the very mention of political consultants in India was conspicuous by its absence. In the late 1990s, scholar Fritz Plasser conducted a ‘Global Political Consultancy Survey’ which interviewed political consultants, party managers and party employees in 40 countries (Plasser 2000; Plasser and Plasser 2002). Based on the results of the survey, Plasser (2000) found that in contrast to other parts of the world, none of the party managers interviewed in India claimed to have used the services of a political consultant. Furthermore, 77 per cent of all party managers in India expressed doubts about the possibility of ‘American campaign strategies’ ever being replicated in India. This led Plasser (2000, 44) to remark that ‘India is a special case, which can be attributed to the exceptional cultural barriers and the lack of money, as well as the Indian exceptionalism regarding their form of democracy’. Notwithstanding its purported ‘cultural barriers’, in a little over a decade, India witnessed the rise of the multi-million-dollar industry of political consulting. This chapter will demonstrate how the rise and expansion of political consultants can be attributed to an admixture of the demand- and supply-side variables outlined in Chapter 2.

The chapter establishes the role of context in an analysis. This is done by defining context, presenting a context continuum that can be used to understand an object of study, and introducing the types of conditions that shape understandings of discourse. Six different approaches to studying context are discussed in this chapter: systemic functional linguistics, the SPEAKING model, frames, indexicality, contextualization cues, and next-turn proof procedure. After reading this chapter, readers will understand what context is and why it is important; be able to study context using different models and constructs; and know how discourse and context work together to create meaning.

In chapter 6, Guarantee at last? (May 26 - June 1), it becomes clear that even though the Austrian parliament passed a law authorizing the government to guarantee Credit Anstalt’s deposits, the struggle is far from over. It is difficult to get information from Credit Anstalt and nervousness about Germany and reparations grows as the Austrian crisis is also developing into a currency crisis. International bankers set up an International Creditors Committee, while the BIS and the Bank of England insist on controllers being associated with the Credit Anstalt and the Austrian National Bank (ANB). Norman confesses to have difficulty separating cause and effect and he grows impatient with the BIS and the ANB.

Chapter 6 portrays two adolescent speakers of Chinese as a heritage language and their respective families.  Drawing upon interview data as well as face-to-face conversational data in everyday interactions, it situates the adolescents’ attitude toward the Chinese language in the contexts of talking about their respective families in terms of values, behavioral patterns, and accents, talking for their families as they interpret and translate from Chinese to English for their parents and polish their parents’ English in everyday social encounters, and talking with their families in digital communication across three generations. It explores second-generation immigrant children’s perceptions of their parents’ attitudes toward child rearing, college preparation, and career choices. It also investigates the impact of the parents’ triumphs and challenges in their immigration experience on the children’s language choices.