151398 research outputs found
Sort by
Preparing for the end of consociational power-sharing
No full textThe constitutional future of Northern Ireland remains defined by a delimited question mark. The established framework requires this level of uncertainty. Potential change is now a central concern for serious scholarly reflection. The specific aim in this chapter is to examine the implications of present deliberations about a united Ireland for consociational power-sharing. Those advocating constitutional change must form a substantive view on what is to be proposed in the concurrent referendums. That will be bound up with available evidence on success, sustainability, and stability – keeping in mind that these terms merit interrogation. Perspectives on the democratic experiment in Northern Ireland are likely to shape views of what should happen next. What the existing normative framework requires also demands analysis of the complex interactions between law and politics. Will a united Ireland lead to the end of power-sharing? If so, what other guarantees will be offered and what might these look like? When people reference a ‘New Ireland’, do they desire different institutional designs? This chapter maps out a case for an integrated Ireland that moves away from consociationalism while acknowledging its achievements
Under conditions of intersecting injustices: recognising multifaceted politics of representation and authorship in post-colonial academia
No full textStudying collective struggles within academia necessitates conceptualising the often-fraught politics of representation as multifaceted. This chapter reflects on how these entangle the personhood, purposes, practices and knowledges of the professoriate within universities undergoing significant social change, drawing particularly from contemporary South Africa, India and Northern Ireland. Those contexts share some common ground in their negotiation of morphed legacies of systems, established by the British empire, which enacted injustice and institutionalised inequality through the university. Of value is how their contemporary projects to address such legacies differ when it comes to the professoriate. An argument is made that critical stances of documenting, comprehending and theorising systems and state(s) of exclusion, can co-exist with bearing witness and appreciating the events or moments of freedom practiced by those actors living with the liminal tensions of crushed hopes. Such practices of “ugly” academic freedoms are often pushed to the periphery in accounts of socio-cultural struggles within world making; and may also be marginalised, misrecognised or undervalued by scholars of “the university” and “higher education”
The Great Lines Project: An exploration of the History of the Invention of Contour Lines
No full textSince first hearing of Newcastle born Charles Hutton in 2014, I have been researching the history of the invention of contour lines. Each time they were invented (and there were many births) it was in response to a particular problem which required a (visual) solution – on a map. I assumed foolishly that there would be one book that pulled together all the strands: who first, why,who saw their map and created the next evolution, including why Charles Hutton and the mountain Schiehallion are so important to the story. But that book isn’t there. Instead I’ve been amassing leads in the Netherlands, Italy, Britain and France, slowly pulling together the threads.The project has involved research, writing (a blog) and making:• A 4ft x 4ft ‘replica’ of Charles Hutton’s ‘missing’ first contour map• Two models based on the scale of the ‘missing’ map, Hutton’s heights (conceived as columns) and current OS (horizontal ‘plates’)• ‘How to Draw a Mountain’ (drawings & prints)• ‘Water according to Cruquius’ (isobaths drawings & prints of the River Merwede)• ‘Altitude’ (a series of drawings & prints re-imagining ‘home’ as a contour line)Many of the drawings will be available as limited edition prints - please contact me for details [Website: www.karenrann.co.uk]First edition 2016, Second edition 2017. Self-published and funded through Arts Council England and Visual Arts in Rural Communities. Copyright with the author
Belfast, the music city - an autoethnography
No full textThe Music City paradigm is a popular area of urban cultural policy internationally. In 2021, Belfast was designated a UNESCO City of Music. This chapter discusses Belfast as a music city of music scenes and a Music City as a policy initiative. Belfast’s experience highlights the complication for a Music City when music is a divisive factor. Belfast, as the capital city of Northern Ireland (NI), was a locus of the Troubles (at its simplest), the NI Catholic-Protestant armed conflict between 1960s and 1998 in which music was/is implicated. As Belfast demographics change, the musical expressions of those beyond the majoritarian sectarian divide factor. This piece is written involving autoethnographic elements, alongside secondary research, to be inclusive of [a] minority ethnic lived experience, offering a snapshot of the music city of post-Troubles and post-pandemic Belfast. The themes explored include music’s (un)peacefulness; minority ethnic music and socio-spatiality of Belfast’s divide through a discussion of music scenes, including traditional, punk and music of Black origin. This chapter therefore speaks to the (sometimes) intertwined nature of the musical and political heritage expanding empirical and conceptual interrogation of Music Cities; and adding to the literature on the impact of international city designations in local cultural policy-making, particularly on the island of Ireland
Constitutionalising algorithmic enforcement
No full textThis chapter offers a clear, comparative map of algorithmic enforcement in the IP domain, with emphasis on copyright and trade marks online. In short, the chapter argues for a constitutional settlement for automated IP enforcement. It begins by defining the operational toolkit—fingerprinting, hashing, classifiers, watermarking, demotion and related workflows. It treats filters and ranking systems not as inevitable black boxes but as governable institutions subject to rights-first limits, measurable performance, and public oversight. It then traces the voluntary, judicial and legislative drivers of today’s regime across multiple jurisdictions, integrating doctrinal developments with empirical evidence and law-and-economics insights to explain how incentives, error costs and market structure shape enforcement in practice. It shows how co-regulatory architectures (from DSA audits and researcher access to Ofcom’s codes) can convert private ordering into verifiable due process: clear reasons, explainability, appeal and human review, standardised accuracy metrics, auditable logs, and secure external testing. The core of the chapter tests these systems against fundamental-rights standards—due process, freedom of information and expression, privacy/data protection, and the freedom to conduct a business—using a proportionality and fair-balance frame that travels across jurisdictions. It closes with a policy-ready blueprint of ‘digital due process’ safeguards designed to protect rights and preserve contestability while keeping enforcement effective at scale. It also advances an incentive-compatible proposal—an algorithmic safe harbour conditioned on verified compliance—so effectiveness at scale is rewarded only when safeguards are real. The destination is pragmatic rather than utopian: an enforcement ecosystem that protects IP, preserves contestability for users and creators, and holds platforms to public-law-like duties, with empirical evaluation and iterative correction built in
New media: a critical analysis of journalism in the digital age
No full textCette étude analyse la redéfinition de l’essence du journalisme à l’ère de la convergence médiatique et de la domination des plateformes numériques. En partant des racines historiques de la profession, de son rôle de « quatrième pouvoir » civique, le texte explore la manière dont les principes fondamentaux du journalisme traditionnel – la vérité, l’exactitude, l’indépendance et la responsabilité publique – sont mis sous pression par les nouvelles réalités. La section de synthèse aborde de manière critique trois controverses centrales: la dualité du statut du journaliste (entre le professionnel détenant une carte de presse et le créateur de contenu), la désinformation et la responsabilité éditoriale dans l'écosystème numérique, ainsi que le dilemme de la régulation des nouveaux médias (le fragile équilibre entre la liberté d'expression et la protection de l'intérêt public). La conclusion n'offre pas de verdict définitif, mais souligne le caractère dynamique du processus de légitimation du journalisme moderne et ouvre la voie à de futures recherches axées sur l'évolution de l'éthique professionnelle et l'adaptation des modèles économiques à l'ère numérique