NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
Not a member yet
18159 research outputs found
Sort by
Chicana Lesbians and Ovarian Psycos: “The squad you been warned about”.
No full textChicana Lesbians provides a fruitful theoretical framework to examine the documentary Ovarian Psycos, directed by Joanna Sokolowski and Kate Trumbull-LaValle, about a radical Latina women’s cycling collective founded in Los Angeles in 2010. Many of the group’s members are lesbians, and all of them are feminists with radical politics who organise cycling-related events to protest against the gentrification of East Los Angeles, racism and violence against women. The film interweaves inter-views with the collective’s members with footage of their moonlit group bike rides. In one such interview, founding member Xela de la X explains that the group provides a safe space, a community and even an alternative family for its mem-bers, while their cycles are both a form of activism and a celebration of active Latina bodies. This article will situate the film’s celebration of the group’s activism in a brief overview of the history of cycling in order to highlight why cycling is a particularly apt symbol for the intersectional feminism espoused by the Ovarian Psycos. It will also examine the connections between the film and the exploration of issues such as family, motherhood, violence, and racial politics in Chicana Lesbians
Smooth Structures on Spheres
No full textWe provide an account of Milnor's construction of an exotic 7-sphere and the subsequent
rapid development of differential topology used to produce and classify exotic manifolds.
We begin by giving some necessary background, assuming only previous knowledge of real
analysis and linear algebra. Smooth manifolds, vector bundles, and fibre bundles are introduced,
along with some operations on manifolds not usually seen in a first course, before
giving a review of all necessary algebraic topology. We pay particular attention to the homology
of smooth manifolds, as this will form the basis for the constructions of the following
section. We then introduce characteristic classes, which are one of the main ingredients
in constructing smooth manifold invariants. Using this setup, we develop Milnor's original
smooth invariant and a generalisation of it to a wider class of manifolds. We give a brief
introduction to Morse theory, which we use to characterise topological spheres. Having set
up the necessary background, we construct a number of examples of exotic spheres. We first
present Milnor's original example, and then develop a more general tool, plumbing disk bundles,
to give a much larger class of examples. Finally, we turn to the classiffication of smooth
structures on spheres of dimension greater than four, developing the necessary background
to state Milnor and Kervaire's classiffication results on homotopy groups of spheres, before
indicating a number of future directions of study to the reader, as this thesis is ultimately
intended to be an introduction to a vast field
Synthesis report of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), Longer report. IPCC.
No full textThis Synthesis Report (SYR) of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) summarises the state of knowledge of climate change, its widespread impacts and risks, and climate change mitigation and adaptation, based on the peer-reviewed scientific, technical and socio-economic literature since the publication of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014.
The assessment is undertaken within the context of the evolving international landscape, in particular, developments in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, including the outcomes of the Kyoto Protocol and the adoption of the Paris Agreement. It reflects the increasing diversity of those involved in climate action.
This report integrates the main findings of the AR6 Working Group reports1
and the three AR6 Special Reports. It recognizes the interdependence of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societies; the value of diverse forms of knowledge; and the close linkages between climate change adaptation, mitigation, ecosystem health, human well-being and sustainable development. Building on multiple analytical frameworks, including those from the physical and social sciences, this report identifies opportunities for transformative action which are effective, feasible, just and equitable using concepts of systems transitions and resilient development pathways. Different regional classification schemes are used for physical, social and economic aspects, reflecting the underlying literature.
After this introduction, Section 2, ‘Current Status and Trends’, opens with the assessment of observational evidence for our changing climate, historical and current drivers of human-induced climate change, and its impacts. It assesses the current implementation of adaptation and mitigation response options. Section 3, ‘Long-Term Climate and Development Futures’, provides a long-term assessment of climate change to 2100 and beyond in a broad range of socio-economic futures. It considers long-term characteristics, impacts, risks and costs in adaptation and mitigation pathways in the context of sustainable development. Section 4, ‘Near-Term Responses in a Changing Climate’, assesses opportunities for scaling up effective action in the period up to 2040, in the context of climate pledges, and commitments, and the pursuit of sustainable development.
Based on scientific understanding, key findings can be formulated as statements of fact or associated with an assessed level of confidence using the IPCC calibrated language5
. The scientific findings are drawn from the underlying reports and arise from their Summary for Policymakers (hereafter SPM), Technical Summary (hereafter TS), and underlying chapters and are indicated by {} brackets. Figure 1.1 shows the Synthesis Report Figures Key, a guide to visual icons that are used across multiple figures within this report
Loving Mother Earth: Exploring education for sustainable development and the circular economy concept in an Irish primary school context.
No full textThis thesis examines key concepts of circular economy in education for sustainable development in the Irish primary school. Using arts-based methods, participants were invited to explore the concepts of a circular economy, circularity, and waste valorisation and to develop knowledge and awareness around measures we can take through education for sustainable development, to heal Mother Earth.
Relevant literature was used to analyse how education for sustainable development is presented in policy and curriculum, drawing on Bacchi’s model of policy analysis. The research was guided by a theoretical framework of Froebelian philosophy and ecofeminism which highlight the holistic, participative, and loving potential of creative pedagogies in primary school education. This research examined, with participants, how their learning and activities on sustainability with regard to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) positively impacted on their lives and the lives of others, helping to sustain and protect the natural world. It explicitly introduced the concept of a circular economy in the Irish primary school, with emphasis on the concepts of circularity and reciprocity. It explored an integrative approach to sustainability concepts, specifically the concept of circular economy with visual art approaches.
The research reveals findings which demonstrate the place complex concepts such as the circular economy concept have in the primary classroom, when approached carefully and democratically through carefully designed pedagogical approaches, informed by a Froebelian ecofeminist theoretical framework and a pedagogy of love
Radical right populism and the sociology of punishment: Towards a research agenda
No full textThe recent populist ‘explosion’ in the US, UK and Europe has pushed radical right populist movements to the centre of western politics. Given criminology's long experience of penal populism in the 1980s and subsequent decades, these developments raise important questions as to the role of sociology of punishment, and the wider discipline of criminology, in responding to far-right populism. This article aims to takes stock of the existing literature on this phenomenon with a view to proposing a tentative criminological research agenda that may contribute to our understanding of the recent rise of authoritarian politics in Europe, the UK and US. While highlighting the continued salience of the emotions in contemporary ‘security populism’, the article cautions against what has been described as a ‘pathologising’ approach to research in this area. Building on this, the paper advances an argument for a criminological research agenda based on a post-dualistic understanding of political affects that seeks to move the analytic focus beyond negativity
Populist responses to crises of market democracy: The case of Bolivia’s Evo Morales
No full textThe abstract is included in the text
Push and Pull Factors: Contextualising Biological Maturation and Relative Age in Talent Development Systems
No full textIn this conceptual paper, we contextualise ongoing attempts to manage challenge dynamics in talent systems in sport. Firstly, we review the broad literature base related to biological maturation, relative age, and the proposed interventions to mitigate effects. We suggest that the relative age effect may be a population level effect, indicative of deeper phenomena, rather than having a direct effect on challenge levels. In contrast, we suggest that biological maturation has a direct effect on challenge at the individual level. Therefore, our main critique of many existing approaches to the management of challenge is a lack of individual nuance and flexibility. We suggest the necessity for talent systems to adopt a more holistic approach, conceptualising biological maturation and relative age within a broader field of "push and pull factors" that impact challenge dynamics in talent development in sport. Finally, we provide practical guidance for talent systems in their approach to relative age and biological maturation, recognising that there is no "gold standard". Instead, there is a need to recognize the highly individual and contextual nature of these concepts, focusing on strategic coherence through talent systems for the management of selection and development processes
The far right, the mainstream and mainstreaming: towards a heuristic framework
No full textThe study of far-right parties and politics is one of the most high-profile research areas in political science and related disciplines. Far-right parties have been the subject of vast amounts of varied scholarship since their turn-of-the-century resurgence. However, as the far right has become a mainstay, with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 blurring the boundaries between mainstream and far-right politics, it has become crucial to pay attention to the process of mainstreaming. Beyond a focus on far-right electoral success, studies of mainstreaming, as well as a critical account of the concept and role of the ‘mainstream’, have proved elusive. This article provides a heuristic framework to understand these concepts and the mainstreaming of the far right. Key to our approach is a more holistic analysis, extending beyond traditional approaches which focus mostly on the electoral outcomes of far-right parties, positioning the mainstream as a relatively inert target or bulwark against them. To achieve this, we seek to reframe the focus towards the centrality of discourse both in the process, and as an outcome, of mainstreaming. Only by doing so can we account for the significant role played by the mainstream in this process
Drivers of domestic politicisation of European issues: explaining low politicisation of differentiated integration in Czechia
No full textThis article contributes to the debate on domestic politicisation of EU issues
by suggesting hitherto overlooked explanation of (non)politicisation. This
paper uses Czechia as an intriguing case in which the mainstream explanations of a low level of domestic politicisation of EU issues do not apply. The
Czech case illustrates that, first, even in the context of high public
Euroscepticism, EU issues do not necessarily become politicised, particularly
so when the public does not consider them to be important. Second, high
politicisation does not occur when there is a path dependency of
a mismatch between positions of political parties and significant parts of
their electorates on EU issues. Finally, the rise of catch-all populist parties
prevents a high level of politicisation of EU issues
The European Union. Federal Trends in Disability Rights
No full textThe abstract is included in the text