12244 research outputs found
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Perceptions of Eastern European migrants in an English village: the role of the rural place image
Get PDFSince 2004 significant numbers of post-accession EU migrants have arrived in regional towns and rural areas of England to live and work: places that are unaccustomed to large-scale in-migration. These recent migration patterns mean that new intercultural encounters are taking place in a number of provincial and ‘out of the way’ places [Nayak 2011 Nayak, A. 2011. “Geography, Race and Emotions: Social and Cultural Intersections.” Social and Cultural Geography 12 (6): 548–562. This article argues that if we are to fully understand the social interactions and practices of exclusion and inclusion between long-term settled populations and migrants in rural areas that are experiencing new migration flows, it is vital to examine such processes at the local scale. The article draws on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including 30 semi-structured qualitative interviews, to explore English village resident's perceptions of Eastern European migrants who live and work at nearby horticultural nurseries. Village residents’ narratives reveal a discourse of migrants ‘fitting in’ with the collectively held place image of the ‘working village’. However, my findings also reveal that, despite this apparent conviviality, a language of invisibility is used to describe the migrants’ presence. Thus, the place image of the working village serves to mask ambivalent attitudes towards migrants and an unequal power relationship that exists between the two groups
Operationalising the concept of ecosystem collapse for conservation practice
No full textConcern is growing about ecosystem collapse, namely the abrupt decline or loss of an ecosystem resulting from human activities. While efforts to assess the risk of ecosystem collapse have developed at large spatial scales, less attention has been given to the local scales at which conservation management decisions are typically made. Development of appropriate management responses to ecosystem collapse has been limited by uncertainty regarding how collapse may best be identified, together with its underlying causes. Here we operationalise ecosystem collapse for conservation practice by providing a robust definition of collapse, in a form that is relevant to the scale of conservation decision-making. We provide an overview of different causes of collapse, and then explore the implications of this understanding for conservation practice, by examining potential management responses. This is achieved through development of a decision tree, which we illustrate through a series of case studies. We also explore the role of indicators for the early detection of collapse and for monitoring the effectiveness of management responses. Ecosystem collapse represents a significant challenge to conservation practice, as abrupt changes in ecosystem structure, function and composition can occur with little warning, leading to profound impacts on both biodiversity and human society. The risks of ecosystem collapse are likely to increase in future, as multiple forms of environmental change continue to intensify. We suggest that selection of management responses should be based on an understanding of the causal mechanisms responsible for collapse, which can be identified through appropriate monitoring and research activities
Project knole: an autocosmic approach to authoring resonant computational characters
Get PDFProject knole, consisting of this thesis and a mixed reality installation artwork centred around a computational simulation, is a practice-based response to the question of how a character in a work of computational narrative art might maintain their defining quality of dynamic agency
within a system (arguably one of the key potentials of the form), while achieving the ‘resonant’ qualities of characters in more materially-static artforms. In all aspects of this project, I explore a new design philosophy for achieving this balance; between the authorship of a procedural computational system, and the ability of that system to ‘resonate’ with the imagination of an audience. This philosophy, which I term the ‘autocosmic’, seeks inspiration for the curation of audience response outside the obvious boundaries of artistic discipline, across the wider spectrum of human imaginative engagement; examples often drawn from mostly non-aesthetic domains. As well as defining the terms ‘resonance’ and ‘autocosmic’, and delineating my methodology more generally, this thesis demonstrates how the ‘autocosmic’ was employed within my creative work. In particular, it shows how some of the perennial problems of computational character development might be mediated by exploring other non-aesthetic examples of imaginative, narrative engagement with personified systems. In the context of this project, such examples come
from the historio-cultural relationship between human beings and the environments they inhabit, outside of formal artistic practice. From this ‘autocosmic’ launchpad, I have developed an artwork that starts to explore how this rich cultural and biological lineage of human social engagement with systemic place can be applied fruitfully to the
development of a ‘resonant’ computational character
Negotiating climate change in crisis
Get PDFClimate change negotiations have failed the world. Despite more than thirty years of high-level, global talks on climate change, we are still seeing carbon emissions rise dramatically. This edited volume, comprising leading and emerging scholars and climate activists from around the world, takes a critical look at what has gone wrong and what is to be done to create more decisive action.
Composed of twenty-eight essays—a combination of new and republished texts—the anthology is organised around seven main themes: paradigms; what counts?; extraction; dispatches from a climate change frontline country; governance; finance; and action(s). Through this multifaceted approach, the contributors ask pressing questions about how we conceptualise and respond to the climate crisis, providing both ‘big picture’ perspectives and more focussed case studies
Hiding in plain sight: the influence of hobby wargaming on the development of the art and science of professional wargaming
No full textThis submission for PhD by Publication argues that the interest in professional wargaming has varied over time, due to the lack of documentation of wargaming practise, methods and handbooks, and my work is contributing towards countering that omission. My work presented for this PhD represents the results of over a decade's work to document the development of wargaming practise, hobby and professional. This thesis focuses on the theme of how the hobby have influenced developments in professional gaming. My work is contributing to helping professional wargaming keep traction by sharing good practise for example through my articles, books, conference papers and practise. This thesis looks at my contribution to the research in early wargaming and the influence of the early amateur games on the professional. Highlighting that the hobby games introduced concepts such as tabletop landscape, miniatures and political gaming. I then outline where my work has discussed the influence of the wargaming evangelists who have influenced the direction of professional gaming, with the examples of HG Wells, Donald Featherstone, Colonel Dupuy, James Dunnigan and Paddy Griffith. It then demonstrates how my work on Matrix Games and Confrontational Analysis has spawned a whole series of professional wargames. My ongoing work on cyber wargames has contributed in some way to progressing beyond the initial methods used in professional cyber wargames. I conclude this submission with my analysis that professional gaming should openly acknowledge the need to borrow good practise from other disciplines, as well as the hobby sector. The world is facing critical threats and games are being played to help inform decision making and prepare leaders. If developments from hobby wargaming can improve the value of these professional games, this is of potential benefit to us all
A proposal for an epistemologically humble phenomenology: an interview with Denise Cush
No full textDenise Cush was at Lancaster University while Ninian Smart (1927–2001) and Eric Sharpe (1933–2000) were there, both major scholars in the Phenomenology of Religion who also changed the way Religious Education was taught in schools in England. Cush had also switched from Theology to Religious Studies and, taking on board many of Ninian Smart’s ideas, went on to become influential in Religious Education. The following interview was conducted by Suzanne Owen at King’s College London on 8 December 2017
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No full textA work presented live for the online colloquium Work & Working Through, for the research group Material/Performing, at Bath Spa University
The blockchain university: disrupting “disruption”?
No full textThis paper explores the promise of disruption of higher education offered by latest platform technologies—a combination of mobile applications for connecting teachers and students and blockchain technology for secure transactions of information and money. We start with a brief examination of several generations of technological disruptions arriving from the Silicon Valley with a special focus to educational technology. Showing that these disruptions are primarily focused to furthering capitalist mode of production, we question whether the latest disruption could provide different results. Advertised as “Uber for students, Airbnb for teachers”, the Woolf University offers the seductive promise of radical transformation of higher education based on cooperative principles. Our analysis, which is based on early ideas about the development of the Woolf University, indicates that it has the potentials to offer cooperative learning to students, cooperative employment to academic workers, all the while retaining highest quality of teaching and learning modelled after ancient scholastic principles. On that basis, we conclude that the Woolf University, together with other adaptations of blockchain technology for educational purposes, does offer a lot of potential for fundamental disruption of higher education and should be closely watched in the times to come
CERN | ALICE Detector
No full textFeatured in the exhibition, 'Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser'.
Exploring its origins, adaptations and reinventions over 157 years, this immersive and theatrical show charted the evolution of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from manuscript to a global phenomenon beloved by all ages.
Curated by Kate Bayley
Polio vaccination and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Get PDFBackground:- Previous research has suggested that enteroviruses may be implicated in the development and persistence of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). One method of investigating this topic has been to use a polio vaccination challenge, and a previous study showed that CFS patients had more shedding than healthy controls. There was no effect of the vaccination on the clinical condition or wellbeing of the CFS patients.
Methods:- In the previous study, the control group were more likely to have had a recent booster vaccination. This was controlled in the present study, where 18 CFS patients were randomly assigned to vaccination or placebo conditions. Nine healthy volunteers were also given the polio vaccination.
Results:- The results confirmed that vaccination had no negative effects on the CFS group. Although there was more virus shedding in the CFS polio group than in the control polio group, this difference was not significant.
Conclusion:- This study confirms that polio vaccination is not contraindicated in CFS patients but could not confirm that they are more susceptible to enterovirus infection