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Disrupting deliberation? The impact of the pandemic on the social practice of deliberative engagement
No full textThe coronavirus pandemic disrupted established ways of doing democracy. This was particularly the case for citizens’ assemblies that have been increasingly commissioned by public authorities to help tackle complex policy problems. The social restrictions adopted in response to the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the “deliberative wave”, making the in-person participation of citizens’ assemblies unviable. It forced deliberative practitioners to rethink their standard mode of operation. In this paper, we adopt social practice theory to make sense of how the meanings, competencies and materials associated with the practice of deliberative mini-publics were challenged and at times reformulated as practitioners were forced to adapt to digital delivery. Our findings highlight that while aspects of deliberative practice such as inclusivity were rethought, the established identity and competencies of practitioners played a constraining role in the choices and applications of technology
Decolonizing knowledge Science, scientists and science education
No full textThis chapter focuses on epistemological questions related to decolonising knowledge. Science and scientific knowledge remain the bedrock of modernist epistemology. D’Souza argues that a programme to decolonise knowledge, which is the condition precedent for decolonising curriculum, must begin by closely interrogating the ways in which the sciences structure contemporary systems of knowledge. The chapter revisits Jit Pal Singh Uberoi’s writings on science and knowledge, more specifically his text The European Modernity: Science, Truth and Method, his non-dualist approaches to knowledge, his critique of the hiatus between knowledge, values and actions in modernist knowledge and the systemic violence that the hiatus inscribes in the very architecture of modernist knowledge. The chapter interrogates the ramifications of disciplinary segmentation of knowledge. Uberoi’s critique, and his pointers to the routes out of the knowledge traps of European modernity are important to revisit in the contemporary context
Narratives in the politics of recognition of Alevis in the course of migration from Turkey to Western Europe since the 1960s
No full textThe narratives of both Alevism and Alevis place considerable emphasis on the concepts of social justice, equality, and solidarity, which are fundamental tenets of their religion. These concepts have been shaped by the historical oppression of their beliefs in Turkey and the inclusive social practices they espouse. The chapter provides a comparative narrative framework of Alevis’ position in Turkey, Austria, and the United Kingdom (UK). Alevis are not officially recognized as a religious group in Turkey. Alevi organizations have constructed their own narratives on Alevism in the context of migration to assert their rights for recognition as a different and equal religion, which reflects a growing resistance against the state’s non-recognizing narrative on Alevism. Despite the existence of multiple narratives on the identity of Alevis in Austria, it is the first and only country to officially recognize Alevis as a religious community. In the UK, a singular narrative is currently emerging from the British Alevi Federation, delineating Alevism as distinct from Islam. In this sense, we understand the concept of narrative for migrant communities as subjective and flexible texts to self-position their public presence in alignment with the new social and political contexts they have encountered in the course of their migration
Nation, Nationalism and Indian Hindi Cinema
No full textIn introducing this special issue on 'Nation, Narration and Nationalism in Indian Popular Bollywood Movies' this locates a shifting articulation of Indian national identity within the wider context of domestic social and political issues and the impact of globalisation. The 1980s are identified as a pivotal decade, as highlighted in the opening articles in this collection. These are followed by pieces which map the onset and varied impact of the Hindutva movement on Bollywood. This introduction further discusses the range of cinematic genres in which nationalistic tropes are inscribed and how these convey national identity
Nation, Family and Trauma: Techno-Nationalism and conflicts of loyalty in the Indian Hindi-language espionage thriller Mission Majnu
No full textThe Indian Hindi-language espionage thriller Mission Majnu is set in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its central character is Amandeep Ajitpal Singh, an Indian spy who adopts the guise of Tariq to conduct a covert operation to uncover Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme. The film is shown both as encoding a nationalist message through various plot devices and contributing to audience willingness to absorb this message through its supposed authenticity. On a macro-level, there is an othering of Pakistan alongside a presentation of the selfless patriotism of the brave agents of India’s intelligence services. In highlighting the latter, it also presents a celebratory techno-nationalism. Yet in interweaving personal and national stories and traumas the film also presents a reading of how Indian covert operatives navigate their personal and professional lives and their relationship to the state they serve. In examining the tensions between loyalty to family and to nation, the film also centres a leitmotif of national belonging as a test, a test that Amandeep sacrificially passes
Preprint: Fat fraction and iron concentration in lumbar vertebral bone marrow in the UK Biobank
No full textThe UK's Indian Diaspora: Reflections of Hindutva Ideology Online and Offline
No full textIndia home to over a billion people has around 17.9 million as a diaspora community around the world. With the onset of a far-right political power in India who are proponents of extremist Hindu ideology, the diaspora’s engagement and participation in this is notable. The paper proposes research questions which aims to observe the UK Indian diaspora’s participation on Twitter and WhatsApp to spread and mobilise for the Hindutva cause. The objectives of the proposed research are to explore themes and contextualise diaspora politics from the lens the Indian diaspora, and to understand how digital media spaces are used by both the political party and its diaspora supporters in creating nationalistic discourse and an identity solidified within these means. The study will also aim to gain in depth understanding of how these online discourses and practices reflect in offline mobilisation. Since this is a MPhil thesis, the paper only proposes a plausible methodology using digital ethnography and semi-structured interviews, that may be used by future researchers either to complete the research questions or for a similar study
Best Practice Protocol for the validation of Aerosol, Cloud, and Precipitation Profiles (ACPPV)
No full textValidation activities are critical to ensure the quality, credibility, and integrity of Earth observation data. With the deployment of advanced active remote sensors in space, a clear need arises for establishing best practices in the field of cloud, aerosol and precipitation profile validation. This publication fulfills this need, by proposing common practices, capturing lessons learned from earlier missions. The ACPPV publication is a result of an international collaboration of 97 scientists from 58 Institutions and Space Agencies, reviewed and accepted by the CEOS Working Group for Calibration and Validation (action item CV-22-01). The approaches and recommendations included, cover a range of issues, including correlative site and instrument selection, data processing and quality control, campaign criteria, configurations, scenarios, collocation methods, suggestions on issues concerning scene representativeness, and intercomparison methodologies. Moreover, guidance on the statistical validation through intercomparison between satellite-based remote sensing observations, and on the near-real time validation through monitoring in an NWP data assimilation system are included. To this end, the scientific communities involved in past missions have reviewed lessons learned and identified areas where convergence on similar approaches is beneficial. Finally, existing gaps in our Cal/Val knowledge are summarized. Given the complexity and diversity of geophysical scenarios and retrievals of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation regimes, the ACPPV document is aimed at knowledge exchange and conveying lessons learned, rather than definitions on single and strict protocols that have been agreed upon in some other domains with fewer degrees of freedom
Lost Memories: Subjectivity and Temporality in Narratives of Cognitive Decline
No full textAmnesiac Mild Cognitive Impairment, or MCI, is an underdiagnosed, debilitating memory-loss condition and frequent precursor to dementia that affects millions of people worldwide while remaining largely unfamiliar to the public, though early detection can slow progression (Mattke, et al). Yet, even as the field of MCI studies grows, the condition has rarely, if ever, been specifically addressed in literary works or examined in literary studies. This paper asks how experimentations with MCI might animate and offer new futures in literary fiction. Building upon scholarship by Lugea and the Queen’s University Dementia Fiction Project—which analysed the “mind styles” of cognitive impairment fiction—this talk extends their findings with a “mind style” analysis of amnesiac fiction, such as The Interrogation by J.M.G. Le Clezio, along with non-fictional diaries of real people with MCI. I then move towards a practice-oriented account of my own fiction writing, as I develop an emergent lexicon depicting the mindset of an MCI-afflicted character in my novel-in-progress. This talk reflexively narrates my methods of creating a fictional voice for the subjective terrain of cognitive impairment, demonstrating how that voice can negotiate the uncertain futures provoked by MCI as lived experience and challenge to representational modes and literary conventions
Nonhuman Well-Being is a Part of Happiness and Well-Being Conceptions Among Central Indian Indigenous Communities
No full textThe ontological turn in social sciences has revealed the anthropocentrism of earlier literature, but the role of interspecies relations in well-being ideals remains less explored. We examine the role of interspecies relations in well-being conceptions. The study is conducted among Indigenous communities to capture alternative human realities to those mainly reflected in the academic well-being literature. The study asks: what are the perspectives of selected Indian Indigenous communities on interspecies relations and well-being, and what is the role of the interspecies relations in their well-being and happiness conceptions? The research was conducted qualitatively using an immersive study technique, participatory observation and interviews, in eight villages in Central India. The material was analysed by participatory analysis and qualitative coding. The respondents form an ‘interspecies community’ with most of the nonhumans: the respondents had familial, reciprocal and caring relations with nonhumans, and perceived both the humans and nonhumans to similarly depend on a shared ecology. Such caring relations that relate to a sense of connection, and the well-being of the local humans and nonhumans were seen as important for human happiness. The caring relations towards the nonhumans, and sense of interdependency with the interspecies community tie the well-being of nonhumans to the local well-being conceptions. The local perspectives emphasize and respect the well-being of the nonhumans more than the predominant academic well-being conceptions