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Nature writing
No full textNature writing has been parodied for what Richard Kerridge identifies as ‘purple prose’. Given the remarkable resurgence of the popularity of nature writing in the first decades of this century, this chapter considers how nature writers now can develop a prose style that avoids the excesses traditionally associated with the genre and that will face up to and not shrink from the threats to nature, including ‘global warming and the huge loss of wildlife populations’, that demand perspectival shifts between the local and the global, the personal and the planetary
On climate change ontologies and the spirit(s) of oil
Get PDFThe last major UNFCCC COP Agreement — the so-called Paris Agreement of COP21 in 2015 — emphasised international cooperation through market-based instruments. International carbon trading was insisted on, so as to (seemingly) allow mitigation, rather than reduction/cessation, of emissions from industrial production. Repeated utterances of the positive impacts of carbon markets in terms of reducing emissions and speeding the transition to a low-carbon economy, however, were also met with equally repetitive and forceful claims that carbon markets have failed. The polarised disagreement between these positions and the numbers supporting them demonstrates that climate management and carbon markets are not merely technical problems that can be fixed by measurement, modelling and technocratic solutions. They are political problems representing highly divergent values and worldviews. This essay asks questions about how anthropogenic climate change is understood, and which responses are promoted as appropriate for this systemic predicament. It argues that ontological dimensions are at play here, arising from different ways of seeing and knowing the world
We'll always have Paris
Get PDFMany were rightly sceptical of the Paris Agreement’s choreographed performance of success, given its reliance on theoretical carbon trading, fantastical Negative Emission Technologies (NETs), and voluntary national ‘contributions’. But was COP21 the high-water mark of climate co-operation? Can COP26 rekindle the internationalist spirit required to keep even the idea of a globally co-ordinated effort alive, in the face of resurgent nationalism and the proliferation of apparently more immediate crises? This article explores the chances of COP26 reinvigorating international co-operation, and with it the flagging credibility of the whole Paris process. It focuses in particular on the Paris Agreement’s controversial Article 6 rules on voluntary carbon trading, and the urgent need to prevent emissions traded across international borders from counting towards Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
Exploring stakeholder perspectives on contemporary return-to work strategies and practices for chronic pain sufferers
Get PDFPsychologically and physically safe work is good for the health and well-being of most people including those living with pain. Chronic pain remains the second biggest reason for work absence, and is economically and psychologically costly to employees, employers, and governments. This thesis investigates the most effective strategies in promoting return to work (RTW) among employees with ongoing pain.
Two reviews (one systematic, one narrative) found no conclusive evidence to support any treatment approach, although stratified, multidisciplinary interventions with workplaceoriented elements are optimal. Semi-structured interviews with employees with chronic pain (study one), occupational health physicians (study two), occupational therapists and occupational health nurses (study three) were analysed using thematic analysis.
In study one, employees with chronic pain felt motivated towards RTW and adopted an 'active' role in the process. Social support played a pivotal role, although workers felt pressured to be '100% fit' upon returning. Employees felt expert in their pain experience, entitled to ownership of their care decision-making, and acted as knowledge conduits between stakeholders.
In study two, occupational health physicians were frustrated with current RTW processes, perceived overworked GPs as unwitting saboteurs of RTW processes, and blamed systemic issues within the NHS and reduced resources for the lack of access to multidisciplinary interventions. Study three revealed that medicalisation of chronic pain hinders RTW, and primary RTW outcomes should be driven by workers' meaningful activity. Health professionals in study three adopt a protective role with pain clients, similar to the mentoring role suggested in study two.
The thesis' theoretical framework, revised in the light of the empirical analyses, retains the biopsychosocial model of pain and the Job Demands-Resources model, and suggests that a successful RTW strategy for workers with chronic pain should be multidisciplinary, consider patients' active roles, their need for support, and adopt a flexible approach to compensation. Implications for practice include extending who does sick-listing and examining volunteering as an occupational outcome
'The book of hours'; a new poetics: finding a model for spoken word in poetry films.
Get PDF'The Book of Hours' is an online poetry film project which contains 48 poetry films made in collaboration with 27 filmmakers. Through the process of creation I have explored how to bring the immediacy and vibrancy of spoken word into the poetry film form. My project is experimental in its use of spoken word in poetry film, and innovative in its approach to creating a themed collection of poetry films. This critical paper contextualises this research. My methodology for this has been to examine theories of poetry film, analyse historic and current poetry film projects and approaches to writing about contemplative poetry, and to trace my creative journey in the creation of 'The Book of Hours'
SEDIMENT
No full textSEDIMENT brings together three decades of work by celebrated German artist Mariele Neudecker, who works at the crossover of art and science. Landscape, the deep sea, the Arctic, environmental concerns and lockdown all have a presence in this major solo exhibition.
The artist’s quest to find a ‘contemporary sublime’ leads her to explore topics such as mapping, perception, the invisible, painting and the history of art. This multimedia practice incorporates sculpture, video, painting, photography and sound
Students' beliefs about learning English as a foreign language in wartime: the experience of Damascus University from 2017 to 2020
Get PDFThis research investigates the factors that have affected Damascus University students' attitudes towards learning English as a foreign language and have, as a consequence, led to their poor English exam results during the war in Syria. Given that learners' attitudes towards and progress in language learning are directly associated with their beliefs about language learning, this research argues that
learners' beliefs are contextually conditioned and responsive to the surrounding environment and can as a result affect their attitudes towards and success in the
target language. To this end, an explanatory sequential mixed-methods methodology combining three approaches within the theoretical framework of Dewey's (1938, 1916) concept of experience was employed using a modified version of Horwitz's (2012) Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI 2.0) survey and utilising semi-structured interviews.
The research has found that two major sets of factors, namely internal factors, including cognitive and affective constructs associated with the students, and external/objective factors relating to the learning context and the overall environment surrounding the students, have interacted with each other and contributed to creating contradictions in the students' language learning beliefs,
which eventually influenced their attitudes and final exam results. The research has also found that some of the students' language learning beliefs were variable, responsive to context, and some others were stable, resisting change. Also, the students' motivation and strategy use were found to be context-driven. Theoretically, this research contributes to the field of language learning beliefs in that it emphasises the role of context in constructing and shaping learners' beliefs and experiences, including the interplay between learners and their context. It is the first study to investigate learners' beliefs about foreign language learning in wartime. It also contributes to the scant studies investigating Arab learners' beliefs about
language learning. Methodologically, this research utilises three approaches to investigating language learning beliefs, normative, metacognitive and contextual, and is the first study to use the BALLI in the context of war. Findings from this research provide a basis for future studies, which can help in creating more studentcentred foreign language classes and language programmes that take into account students' beliefs and context and help in adjusting their attitudes to enhance their autonomy, particularly in turbulent contexts. Also, findings from this research can
help in designing English language teaching programmes that are not limited to the linguistic content but could prepare the students to engage actively with the world outside their classrooms
Seen/believed: a practice-based study of depiction within the photograph
Get PDFThis practice-based study with accompanying body of work, addresses the question of how recognition and illusion, as well as viewers’ expectations, influence the reading of a
photograph. It arose from Barthes’ comment about the ‘real unreality’ of the photograph, interpreted as expressing the conundrum that while the contemporary photograph may be an object or on screen, what it illustrates is not wholly accurate to what was once in front of the lens. (Barthes, 1977, p. 44). The study is explained in this document, outlining the trajectory and rationale behind the research, it describes all the studio work and notes contextual links to related works by other artists. The studio work, particularly those pieces presented at exhibition, are at
the heart of the project. They are the visual enactment, the resolution and the new knowledge integral to the enquiry.
The study investigated the question of what is seen/believed within the contemporary photograph, used within art practice, accepting that this may be on screen or paper. The
topic was subdivided into an enquiry of the assumptions surrounding the accuracy of a photograph, the implications of staging within the photograph and the phenomenology
of the paper photograph. Throughout there was an emphasis on first-hand research and critical reflection, annotated in sketch books. Relevant theoretical texts, which became interrelated objects of thinking, were by Roland Barthes, Lucy Soutter and David Campany, amongst others.
Initially the studio practice engaged with given strategies and tactics used by established 20th / 21st century practitioners, notably James Casebere and Thomas Demand because of their use of models specifically made to photograph. Early works made during the study were ‘in the style of..’, progressing to works using deliberate staging, resulting in finished pieces with photographs and objects. The study also includes extended experimentation with early process photography, notably cyanotypes, to extend ideas of phenomenology.
The studio work, in particular "The Mugshots" (2018), as well as first-hand research, demonstrated that contemporaneously the notion of what might constitute a photograph has been embellished and eroded. The author discusses the personal credibility of the photograph as object, suggesting that this lingers from the analogue, endowing a form of tacit knowledge. The study observes that definitions of the photograph are no longer adequate. Perhaps 'photographic' as an adjective is preferable to 'photograph' as a noun. Therefore, as well as questioning the actual compared to what is presented within a photograph, the study became concerned with finding a more appropriate definition of what constitutes a photograph.
The author concludes that a photograph exists on paper or a screen and is made by the reaction of light emitted from an object, onto chemicals or a processor. The insistence on
‘light emitted from an object’ makes it different to an image, which may appear to be a photograph.
The concluding work in the study "Follow Me Lights" (2020) holds the findings and excitement of the whole study as well as the physical enactment of the new knowledge. By examining the camera’s response to the phenomenon of light, and the happenstance of a fault in the camera’s processor, it shows a smudge (analogue) beside visible pixels (digital). The work disrupts all ideas of true/real/ accurate because of the introduction of contradiction and uncertainty. The conclusion is that the viewer reads what is presented dependant on context and their own expectation. The study has come full circle and the photograph remains enigmatic, echoing Barthes
