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Rethinking and Advancing a ‘Bottom-up’ Approach to Cultural Participation of Persons with Disabilities as Key to Realising Inclusive Equality
No full textDebates about cultural participation of persons with disabilities within legal and socio-legal scholarship and within disability studies tend to remain disconnected. This article brings legal analysis and other academic disciplines into a critical dialogue. It sheds light on how the right to cultural participation is understood from the bottom up, building on a study carried out across Europe. Participants in this study perceived opportunities to participate in, and to contribute to, arts and culture in ways that are consistent with the human rights approach to disability as expressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and as central to the concept of inclusive equality. Cultural participation was also understood as intrinsic to the humanity of all people, as vital to inclusion in mainstream life, as capable of communicating experiences or identities not otherwise represented, and as potentially transformative of art-forms and ultimately, of society
An ambivalent approach to disability in older age: evidence from reporting by states parties under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
No full textIssues of ‘disability’ and ‘ageing’ are usually approached separately in theorising, activism and policy making. Yet people with disabilities age and many people will experience disability if they live long enough. Human rights approaches to disability enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) are not often applied to older people experiencing disability. This article presents findings of a systematic qualitative analysis of reports made by 28 European states to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the independent body that monitors CRPD implementation, focusing particularly on Article 19 CRPD (‘Living independently and being included in the community’). While states’ reports refer to older people or ageing in different contexts, their approach can be characterised as ambivalent. Reports tend to constitute older people experiencing disability as ‘older’ rather than ‘disabled’; they do not demonstrate a thorough engagement with disability experienced in older age, and display a limited focus on people ageing with lifelong disability. Several reports detail exclusions of ‘older people’ from disability supports to live in the community and some exclude impairments associated with ageing from definitions of what ‘disability’ is. The reports provide almost no evidence of consultation with organisations working on ageing. The article concludes that while the CRPD’s potential to contribute to realising rights for older people with disabilities is under-recognised among scholars and non-governmental organisations, the fact that states refer to older people in their reporting under the CRPD provides a starting point for more engagement
Introductory Remarks in East Asian Religiosities in the European Union
No full textThis volume aims to provide an overview of East Asian religiosities in the European
Union, with the aim of shedding light on their increasingly significant presence,
revolving around the informal or structured practices of several million Europeans and
East Asians (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese people) living in Europe. In
this introductory chapter we address some of the main scholarly issues concerning the
study of these religiosities, paying attention to the reasons why this topic is relevant to
Religious Studies and other related disciplines, to the methodological challenges
inherent to this field, and to some conceptual questions emerging from the countryrelated and thematic chapters
Fostering Greater Conversion for Active Liturgical Participation: Exploring the Thought of Bernard Lonergan
No full textThe challenge before contemporary liturgical and sacramental theologians is to findnew means of explaining the notion of sacramental ef icacy, which would be suf icient
to sustain the Christian faith and enhance worship in our contemporary society. This
study argues that the complexities of the human person in today’s society have made the traditional categories and framework (like Thomas Aquinas’ theory of sanctifying grace) used to express the human person’s experience of God inadequate to enhance worship in contemporary times. It presents Bernard Lonergan’s approach as a more sustainable model that better elaborates on the position of Thomas Aquinas and The Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Lonergan attempts to understand the idea of grace offered in the sacraments by beginning with human experiences. Head vocates for a liturgical and sacramental theology that enables the human person to encounter God. For him, reflection on conversion is the foundation for that new theology
Long-Term Evolution of Significant Wave Height in the EasternTropical Atlantic between 1940 and 2022 Using the ERA5 Dataset
No full textStudies on the variability in ocean wave climate provide engineers and policy makers with information to plan, develop, and control coastal and offshore activities. Ocean waves bear climatic imprints through which the global climate system can be better understood. Using the recently updated ERA5 dataset, this study evaluated the spatiotemporal distribution and variability in significant wave height (SWH) in the Eastern Tropical Atlantic (ETA). The short-term trends and rates of change were obtained using the Mann–Kendall trend test and the Theil–Sen slope estimator, respectively, and decadal trends were assessed using wavelet transformation. Significant, positive monthly and yearly trends and a prevailing decadal trend were observed across the domain. Observed trends suggest that stronger waves are getting closer to the coast and are modulated by the Southern and Northern Atlantic mid-latitude storm fields. These observations have implications for the increasing coastal erosion rates on the eastern coast of the Tropical Atlantic
‘Datafied dividuals and learnified potentials’: The coloniality of datafication in an era of learnification
No full textWidespread popular discourse, at the time of writing, is centring on the capabilities of AI technologies, among others, in utilising the readily available mass of data to augment claimed educational problems. These positions often elide the unobjective nature of algorithms and the socio-politically infused assemblages of data available, situated within the neoliberalist scientism dominating educational policy discourse. The simplicity with which datafication treats education has led to a global culture of data-driven techno-rationality that affords ultra-rapid forms of free-floating control settled on an ideology of dataism. Dataism rests on the assumption that sociality and subjectification can be reduced to quantifiable data whereby the student rather than being treated as a subject comes to be treated as data doppelganger. The injustices inherent in datafication and its associated epistemes ignore hidden neoliberal inequalities and maintain the insidious coloniality inherent in advanced capitalism, while simultaneously fuelling the rapid and cyclical stripping of purpose from education itself. There is a need to problematise the hidden logics of coloniality that are both maintained and reproduced within the datafication agenda. The current article draws on decolonial theory to animate the logics of datafication through a Deleuzian reading, situated within the learnification of neoliberal education
Unearthing the coloniality of neoliberalised curricular discourses to promote a public orientation towards secondary science education
No full textConsidering the challenges facing curricula in science education forces a reckoning with neoliberalism and its transmogrification of education, generally. Science, which has contributed significantly to humanity, is exalted in neoliberal secular discourse and forms a key pillar of social policy governance. However, the progress and innovation attributed to scientific education, within the broader STEM agenda, must be read against the rise in societal inequalities wrought by far-right hostilities and the general erosion of democratic principles in the milieu of neoliberal policy making. This is especially prescient for science curricula given the widespread crystallisation of scientism in society and its role in framing anti-equality arguments. This must also be situated against the broad resistance movements that have arisen, demonstrating the resilience and promise from alternative perspectives such as decoloniality. While decolonial theory reckons with the epistemological violence of science, these perspectives remain underdiscussed in STEM fields. This is necessary for contemporary science curricula given the broader neoliberal erosions of public education that champion instrumentalism and mass measurement in the name of capitalism. This forms the impetus for this conceptual article which presents a decolonial consideration of recent curricular discourses in science
Service user perspectives on recovery: the construction of unfulfilled promises in mental health service delivery in Ireland
No full textPurpose
The concept of personal recovery is now a key pillar of service delivery. It aims to support individuals to flourish and establish a new identity following an acute episode or diagnosis. This view of recovery is unique to each person on that journey. However, there has been a significant focus on measuring these experiences. This paper aims to explore the influence of social constructionism on the concept of recovery within an Irish context, seeking to understand the influence of language, discourse and power on service users’ experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative, interpretivist methodology was adopted for this case study design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 service users. Thematic analysis was chosen as the method of analysis.
Findings
Personalising recovery did not always lead to the removal of biological symptoms, but with the appropriate supports, individual’s recovery journey was greatly enhanced. On the contrary, personal recovery places overwhelmingly responsibility on the individual to succeed, largely driven by neoliberal discourse. This focus on individualism and the pressure to succeed was further experienced when people sought to re-integrate into society and participate in normalised social order. Ultimately, for many service users, they viewed personal recovery as an unfulfilled promise.
Research limitations/implications
It is not a representative sample of service users within an Irish context.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore influence of social constructionism on the concept of personal recovery within a mental health service context
Diurnal to interannual variability in the Northeast Atlantic from hydrographic transects and fixed time-series across the Rockall Trough
No full textThe southern entrance to the Rockall Trough is subject to a complex set of dynamic processes, influenced by Atlantic gyre interactions, the North Atlantic Current, slope boundary currents, variable wind stress forcing, mesoscale activity, and a changing supply of modified water masses formed elsewhere in the Atlantic. These processes drive large temporal and spatial variations, and mixing of surface and intermediate water mass properties that advect through the Trough and drive variations in the deeper waters circulating around it. Here, we investigate variability across the southern and central Rockall Trough from standard hydrographic sections (2006–2022) and deepwater moored subsurface measurements, to better understand changes in water column characteristics and water mass modification during advection through the Rockall Trough and track the aftermath of recent freshening events. Rapid and longer-term physical changes are assessed along with spatial variability and watermass interaction. Interannual variability is large across intermediate depths, deeper circulations are regenerated and a salinity core associated with the eastern boundary current is detailed. Establishing, maintaining, monitoring and analysis of observational ocean time-series datasets are a fundamental requirement for managing and conserving crucial biological resources and are key to understanding oceanic and earth system change
The Detection and Removal of Pollutants in Aquatic Environments: Developing Sensitive Electrochemical Sensors and Using Magnetic Adsorbents
No full textWith the rapid development of industry and economies across the world, the problem of
environmental pollution in aquatic environments has become one of the key issues
facing the World. Consequently, the development of efficient and sensitive analytical
techniques to determine the levels of organic pollutants in water environments and
cost-effective strategies to remove these pollutants, are now more important than ever
before.
In this thesis, sensitive and selective electrochemical sensors with very good long-term
stability were developed for the detection of 4-chloro-2-methylphenoxyacetic acid
(MCPA), p-nitrophenol (p-NP), metronidazole (MTZ), and levofloxacin (LEVO). Two
strategies were employed in the development of these sensors. Firstly, glassy carbon
electrode (GCE) was activated to generate active sites to enhance the electron-transfer
process. Secondly, binder-free nanocomposites were employed to facilitate the detection
of MCPA, p-NP, MTZ and LEVO. The nanocomposites included graphene, bismuth
and copper nanostructures. These were all formed using electrodeposition, avoiding the
need to use binders that are typically employed with drop casting. Using these
approaches, impressive limits of detection of 8.0 nM, 0.18 nM, 0.9 nM and 11.86 nM
were achieved in the electrochemical detection of (1) MCPA at activated GCE, (2) p-NP
with bismuth dendrites deposited onto activated GCE, (3) MTZ with the sequential
electrodeposition of graphene nanoplatelets (Gr) and bismuth and (4) LEVO with the
sequential electrodeposition of Gr and copper at GCE, respectively. Further, graphene
supported magnetic nanocomposites (Gr/Fe) were fabricated and used as adsorbents for
the potential removal of MCPA, p-NP, MTZ and LEVO from aquatic environments.
Iron nanostructures were employed as the magnetic component. These nanocomposites
not only prevent the aggregation of the graphene sheets, but also can endow graphene
with magnetic properties. This makes the magnetic graphene adsorbents easy to separate
by external magnetic fields, greatly simplifying the recycling process. The adsorption
kinetics and adsorption isotherms were studied, and the reproducibility, selectivity and
reusability of the magnetic Gr/Fe composites were evaluated