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Polarisation and Cultural Realignment in Britain, 2014-2019
Get PDFFollowing decades of reduced ideological competition, mainstream party policy diverged in Britain after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. This is motivating renewed interest in mass polarisation, yet that concept remains understudied relative to the American political science literature. Almost all existing research is based in the post-Thatcher era of left-right convergence, leaving gaps in our understanding of cultural realignment during the Brexit period. I consider three perspectives on polarisation in this thesis: (1) sociological accounts claim that polarisation reflects changes in distributional properties of public opinion; (2) party sorting accounts contend that public opinion is not necessarily polarising so much as partisanship is more organised around issue positions; (3) elite cue accounts argue that partisanship causes polarisation and thus limits attitude change to politically engaged voters.
These accounts are tested using cross-sectional and panel data from the British Election Study, 2014-2019. I operationalise aggregate outcomes and individual-level mechanisms contested in the American case, examining the extent to which citizens are dividing through different variables (attitude versus partisanship change), via different voters (partisans versus non-partisans), and on different issues (cultural versus economic).
Little evidence is found for elite cue accounts throughout the thesis. Despite strong left-right policy divergence among Labour-Conservative platforms, I observe depolarisation in the distributional properties and partisanship of mass economic preferences. More ambiguous elite disagreements surrounding European integration, immigration, and broader social values are associated with escalating social division, meanwhile. I find liberal attitude change suggesting socio-demographic culture shifts, yet this trend is unfolding in conjunction with party switching mechanisms. The product of these changes drives mass polarisation from 2014 to 2019, indicating an overarching account of cultural realignment based on sociological and party sorting processes
Aspects of Gravitational and Cosmological Scattering Amplitudes
Get PDFThis thesis presents three distinct aspects of scattering amplitudes research along with background material on the concepts underpinning them. The first of these is the study of on-shell diagrams for \cN=7 supergravity and an associated recursion relation automatically encorporating the bonus relations. This is used to produce momentum twistor expressions which in the case of six-point NMHV use different `coordinate patches' with different ordering of external legs to get compact results and see the cancellation of spurious poles through momentum twistors. The second is the study of colour/kinematics duality of Yang-Mills amplitudes in four-dimensional Anti-de Sitter (AdS) space. By applying a generalised gauge transformation the kinematic numerators can be made to obey a Jacobi relation and these shifted numerators also obey a deformed AdS version of the Bern-Carrasco-Johansson relations. Finally we study wavefunction coefficients of scalar effective field theories (EFTs) in de Sitter space using a representation involving boundary conformal generators acting on contact diagrams and the cosmological scattering equations. Through this representation,
we show that four-point wavefunction coefficients of EFTs exhibit double copy relations analogous to those in flat space with additional curvature corrections with unfixed coefficients. Imposing enhanced soft limits analogous to the EFTs in flat space allows these to be unambiguously fixed and also recovers Lagrangians with hidden shift symmetries. This is explored at four- and six-point
Landscapes of Continued Deposition: A reinterpretation of the burial of Romano- British and Anglo-Saxon/Early Medieval lead tanks in Britain
Get PDFLead tanks from the Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon periods have become some of the most distinctive classes of artefact in Britain from those times. This thesis will be focussing on these artefacts at the time of the late fourth century to the late tenth century for evidence of continuity and change in depositional patterns between these periods.
Their findspots range from Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, Kent, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, London, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Su olk, Sussex and Yorkshire as well as examples in Scotland at Stidriggs and Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway.
As of 2022, there is a total of 63 discovered from both periods at these locations across Britain. There are currently 38 from the Roman period and a further 25 of their later Anglo-Saxon counterparts. The main feature of this thesis will be the concept of landscapes of continued deposition. In this case, I searched for evidence of continued artefact deposition practices across both sets of discoveries regarding their state upon burial and the environment this occurred within. I assessed these alongside similar acts of deposition with Bronze and Iron Age cauldrons regarding choice in landscape, artefact buried and its state upon discovery to demonstrate evidence of landscapes of continued deposition. I also examined the abandonment of the tanks in their respective environments, comparing them with other patterns of artefact burial within these areas. I analysed them on a site to site basis as well as comparing evidence between sites. That created the opportunity to contextualise the burying of the tanks within broader depositional practices occurring in Roman and Anglo-Saxon Britain
The Destabilization of Gender Identity in the Gran flos sanctorum
Get PDFThis dissertation will discuss the destabilization of gender identity in the Gran flos sanctorum by offering a literary analysis of the legends of Saints Agatha, Christina, Vincent, Paul of Thebes, Margaret, Marina, and Pelagia. The corporeality and external transformations of these saints will be used as a focal point for the discussion of gender paradigms and as mechanisms for its subversion. The first chapter will consider the destabilization of female identity and will place this within a wider context of Catholic doctrine, drawing on the works of critics such as Marilyn Yalom and Andrew M. Beresford to assess the significance of the breast in the construction of identity. Chapter Two will analyse masculinity through an exploration of both torture and asceticism as a means of subverting identity, considering notions of anthropophagy and postcolonialism to further the discussion. The third and final chapter will discuss gender fluidity as a means of engaging in asceticism, questioning the patriarchal structure of the Catholic Church and the dynamic of power attached to gender within it. All three chapters focus on corporeality and the body as a means of performing gender identity. The dissertation will have a theoretical angle, drawing upon the work of critics such as Judith Butler in a consideration of gender, as well as Homi K. Bhabha and Edward Said to support discussions of postcolonialism that are relevant to the corporeality of some of the saints, especially in artistic representations of their martyrdoms, and Julia Kristeva to theorize the notion of abjection that is linked to the corporeal transformations analysed in this dissertation
Empires of Knowledge: Chinese Students’ higher education experience at X University, UK
Get PDFI discuss the difficulties Chinese international students (CIS) met in their UK higher education and how far their understanding of knowledge has been transformed by such
experience from field research conducted at X University, UK, from 2017 to 2020. First, I flesh out the theoretical framework for the thesis: a view of power and knowledge influenced by Foucault and the interpretation of Chinese and western cultures in Sino-Hellenic studies. Second, I review the anthropological work on education, knowledge, and CIS to situate the basis and goals of the thesis. Third, I explore how legacies of thought in ancient and modern China and the transformation of higher education in the UK have influenced CIS’ overseas study. Fourth, I explore CIS’ life and social networking at X University, UK. Fifth, I explore CIS’ classroom learning experiences. I argue that students’ different reactions and attitudes toward the perceived confusion in classroom learning represent a collision between two ways of knowing: the traditional Chinese “sage style” and the Western “post-modern critical style”. Sixth, I explore research CIS’ study experience and demonstrate that the British and Chinese ways of PhD training suit students based on the specific experience of individuals. CIS still favour the “master’s family” tradition in Chinese research degree training after they studied in the UK.
Seventh, I explore CIS’ academic writing practice in the UK. I illustrate that the difficulties they experience in UK academic writing could be explained by the different patterns of thought and ways of communication or persuasion in the two cultures. I also present the third way of knowing which CIS are exposed: the “objectivistic” Western natural science style. I conclude that though modern Western natural science’s way of knowing is the dominant knowledge style today in China and the UK, it also has its limitations. A hegemonic “empire of knowledge” deserves to be reflected on, criticised, and replaced by “exchanges and mutual
learning” to inject fresh impetus into the development of human knowledge
Developing and Testing a Low Language Demand Test of Episodic Memory in Autistic Children.
Get PDFDevelopmental research on memory in autism suggests difficulties in episodic memory (EM),specifically recalling fewer or less specific memories of previous encounters due to several facets of memory contributing to these difficulties. The methodological approach of much of this research requires the conscious recollection of past experiences, which proves difficult to assess without using language. This offers a challenge and potential confound for studies of episodic memory in autism, where language skills may be affected. Therefore, this thesis aimed to develop and test a low language demand test of EM to explore EM in neurotypical and autistic children across a wide range of ages to ascertain whether this would lead to a revaluation of their capabilities. Findings across four experiments developed a reliable, valid measure of episodic-like memory (because it omits the experiential component requiring conscious recollection) that was less reliant on spoken communication.
Findings suggest that neurotypical and autistic children across a wide variety of ages can recall highly specific episodic events anchored to spatial and temporal contexts. However, a particularly pertinent finding was that while EM was unrelated
to autism characteristics, it depended on visuospatial working memory for autistic children, suggesting that they achieve similar performance through alternative means. Another significant finding was that using the What-Where-Which occasion test, there was no interdependency between full EM and its binding components, illustrating that the ability to recall specific past events in a particular context and place does not depend on the ability first to bind what-where or what-which information.
The findings highlight several contradictions with previous findings, suggesting that this new approach offers insights into the mechanisms of EM and the nature of memory difficulty in autism, which would not be observable with standard approaches
Dwelling in a “living museum of old Beijing”: a study of the cultural heritage discourse in residential everyday life
Get PDFThis study explores the relationship between cultural heritage discourse and the people who inhabit heritage spaces, through research conducted in an urban residential neighbourhood of conservation importance in Beijing, China. With the aim of improving the implementation of heritage conservation, which has been an established discourse of preserving community culture and history and gets popular based on values attached to old buildings, the study departs from the conventional heritage-centred perspective and foregrounds an everyday perspective, to demonstrate the way that heritage conservation is integrated into the inhabitants’ social lives and personal histories. The thesis is organised into two empirical parts: Firstly, it examines how heritage is discursively constituted and how heritage conservation has become the mainstream approach to preserving and representing local culture in Beijing. Secondly, it describes and examines inhabitants' attitudes, understandings of heritage discourse, and their practices of everyday life in these spaces based on data collected from ethnographic fieldwork. Drawing on these two aspects, the study argues that the cultural heritage discourse and corresponding framings of local culture in urban China form a type of social knowledge that is constantly reproduced in social practices and has been legitimized and popularized among citizens. As a result, the urban space is defined by the hegemonic social knowledge with limited public doubts, while other spatial practices are marginalized. Inhabitants of conservation spaces navigate this situation by using the knowledge in various ways to their everyday lives according to their individual needs for a better life. However, this common yet individualized approach does not change their marginalized positions in defining and using the urban space that was their home before the heritage discourse arrived. By identifying the practical issues arising from the implementation of heritage conservation, this study offers an alternative perspective for understanding the social impacts of cultural heritage conservation and inspires further ideas for possible solutions
Making Sense of Disorder in Molecular Solids Using Solid-State NMR
Get PDFCrystalline materials are typically characterised by diffraction-based techniques which excel at solving the structures of well-ordered materials. However, these techniques have difficulty characterising disorder, as it disrupts the long-range order needed for defined Bragg peaks. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an excellent tool for studying disorder, as it is sensitive to local environment and can detect motion over many orders of magnitude. In this work, NMR-based techniques, primarily lineshape and relaxation analyses, are used in combination with diffraction and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to uncover the dynamic disorder in three types of system. Firstly, despite limited amounts of some samples, NMR is able to characterise the dynamics of diamondoids, a series of rigid hydrocarbon cages. In diamantane and 1(2)3 tetramantane, 13C relaxation shows evidence of C3 rotations with activation energies of 21.1(4) kJ mol−1 and 15(2) kJ mol−1 respectively. For triamantane, second moments, a historical method of summarising static 1H lineshapes, show that the molecules undergo multi-axis jumps, information that could not be obtained through modern NMR or diffraction-based techniques. Secondly, the phase transition in the relaxor ferroelectric material, hydrazinium magnesium formate, is shown to be caused by reorientation of hydrazinium ions from perpendicular to parallel in the channels. Here, a new mechanism is proposed whereby the relaxor ferroelectric response arises directly because of the molecular motion, not despite it. Finally, MD simulations reveal that the dynamics of the solvent molecules in two cocrystal solvates of furosemide-picolinamide have significant librational character. This explains why lineshape and relaxation analyses, which assume a constant amplitude with temperature, are unable to provide a coherent dynamic model. In summary, the NMR techniques used herein, along with supporting diffraction and computational tools, supports their utilisation in the future to better understand disordered materials
Women and the Rwandan Gacaca Courts: Gender, Genocide and Justice
Get PDFThis thesis examines the gacaca trials of women accused of involvement in the perpetration of the Rwandan genocide, paying particular attention to the role of ideas about their gender in this justice process. It uses court reports of the trials of ninety-one accused women; a set of sources that provides novel insights into the defences, testimonies, and agency of accused women in a transitional justice institution. Thematic, statistical, and close textual analysis of these sources reveal a tension in the relationship between gacaca’s stated aim of revealing the ‘truth’ of the genocide and its perpetrators, and the ability of accused women to use ideas about their gender to avoid facing punishment for charges of genocide. Members of local communities combined with this state institution to produce a state-authorised ‘truth’ narrative that ordinary Rwandan women were incapable of acting to perpetrate the genocide, and that those women who had participated were gendered anomalies. In doing so, the gacaca process failed to confront fully women’s genocide involvement.
This analysis also identifies contradictions between accused women’s agency in court and the wider assumption that women acting and speaking in such a public setting is automatically ‘empowering’. Accused women often exerted agency through forms other than speech acts, including using silence to avoid generating knowledge of their genocide involvement. Where women’s agency did come through speech, such speech acts often contributed to public narratives of women’s inability to commit genocide, with individual women achieving successful trial outcomes through the denial of women’s capacity to act. Additionally, accused women’s forced participation in gacaca contributed to the legitimation of a punitive process that produced authority for the Rwandan regime, and that generated a version of the post-genocide state that exercised control over contemporary Rwandan women’s behaviour
Probing the Nature of the Magnetic Interactions in Magnetic Skyrmions
Get PDFMagnetic skyrmions are topologically-protected, solitonic entities which are composed of a vortex-like arrangement of magnetic moments. Recently, they have seen a surge of interest from the condensed matter physics community due
to their presence in a number of systems which feature novel and interesting physical phenomena, such as unique transport and frequency responses. These characteristics, together with their countable nature is highly appealing for use
within novel spintronic devices. With the ever-growing demand for high processing speeds and data storage, skyrmionic devices have the potential to provide
low-power, high density data storage as well as play a key role in a number of next-generation computational devices. Whilst skyrmions do appear in a number of different systems, in this thesis we will focus on skyrmions within bulk-magnets. In these bulk-systems, skyrmions are stabilised within a small range of temperatures and applied magnetic fields. Commonly, skyrmions are shown to be stabilised by the interplay of the exchange, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and Zeeman energies, together with thermal fluctuations or higher-order magnetic anisotropy. Typically, these interactions are only modelled to first order, but there is increasing interest in higher-order and alternative interactions to both generate and manipulate skyrmions.
In this thesis, at Chapter 1 we start with explaining why it is the material specific interactions, and not the particular arrangement of spins, which give rises
to the skyrmion stability. We investigate real material parameters and the spintextures those interactions stabilise using diffraction-based techniques, which we
give a brief overview in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, we design and perform an experiment for measuring and quantifying the anisotropic exchange interaction, and show that this often overlooked interaction is crucial for the formation of
the recently discovered tilted conical phase. In Chapter 4, we look at how to control this tilted conical phase using the magnetoelectric coupling interaction,
and show that we are reliably able to manipulate the conical wavevector into different positions via an electric field, and provide mean-field theory to explain
the tilt-directions as a function of electric field. Furthermore, we provide micromagnetic simulations of a toy model to show the potential spintronic applications
of this manoeuvrability. In Chapter 5, we move away from chiral magnet systems to investigate the spin-textures within a nanoskyrmion-containing material.
We find clear phase boundaries between a number of incommensurate magnetic phases, and perform an experiment to accurately resolve their form. We find interesting behaviour with regards to their chirality, which we suggest to arise
from local Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions despite the overall centrosymmetric crystal structure. In Chapter 6, we return to chiral magnets and experiment with metastable skyrmions created using a custom fast field cooling method. We then discover a remarkable phenomenon that the skyrmion intensity grows as a function of field, which is contrary to previous literature suggesting that their
stability massively decreases. We suggest that both anisotropic interactions and disorder play a role, and perform a thorough directionally dependent study to try
to decouple the two arguments. Finally in Chapter 7, we provide the conclusions of this thesis
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