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Understanding digital inequality: a theoretical kaleidoscope
Get PDFThe pandemic affected more than 1.5 billion students and youth, and the most vulnerable learners were hit hardest, making digital inequality in educational settings impossible to overlook. Given this reality, we, all educators, came together to find ways to understand and address some of these inequalities. As a product of this collaboration, we propose a methodological toolkit: a theoretical kaleidoscope to examine and critique the constitutive elements and dimensions of digital inequalities. We argue that such a tool is helpful when a critical attitude to examine ‘the ideology of digitalism’, its concomitant inequalities, and the huge losses it entails for human flourishing seems urgent. In the paper, we describe different theoretical approaches that can be used for the kaleidoscope. We give relevant examples of each theory. We argue that the postdigital does not mean that the digital is over, rather that it has mutated into new power structures that are less evident but no less insidious as they continue to govern socio-technical infrastructures, geopolitics, and markets. In this sense, it is vital to find tools that allow us to shed light on such invisible and pervasive power structures and the consequences in the daily lives of so many
Ten birds that changed the world
No full textFor the whole of human history, we have lived alongside birds. We have hunted and domesticated them for food; venerated them in our mythologies, religion and rituals; exploited them for their natural resources; and been inspired by them for our music, art and poetry.
In this book naturalist and author Stephen Moss tells the gripping story of this long and eventful relationship through ten key species from all seven of the world’s continents. From Odin’s faithful raven companions to Darwin’s finches, and from the wild turkey of the Americas to the emperor penguin as potent symbol of the climate crisis, this is a fascinating, eye-opening and endlessly engaging work of natural history
Evolutionary and genomic perspectives of brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases
No full textThis chapter utilizes genomic concepts and evolutionary perspectives to further understand the possible links between typical brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases, focusing on the two most prevalent of these: Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Aging is the major risk factor for these neurodegenerative diseases. Researching the evolutionary and molecular underpinnings of aging helps to reveal elements of the typical aging process that leave individuals more vulnerable to neurodegenerative pathologies. Very little is known about the prevalence and susceptibility of neurodegenerative diseases in nonhuman species, as only a few individuals have been observed with these neuropathologies. However, several studies have investigated the evolution of lifespan, which is closely connected with brain size in mammals, and insights can be drawn from these to enrich our understanding of neurodegeneration. This chapter explores the relationship between the typical aging process and the events in neurodegeneration. First, we examined how age-related processes can increase susceptibility to neurodegenerative diseases. Second, we assessed to what extent neurodegeneration is an accelerated form of aging. We found that while at the phenotypic level both neurodegenerative diseases and the typical aging process share some characteristics, at the molecular level they show some distinctions in their profiles, such as variation in genes and gene expression. Furthermore, neurodegeneration of the brain is associated with an earlier onset of cellular, molecular, and structural age-related changes. In conclusion, a more integrative view of the aging process, both from a molecular and an evolutionary perspective, may increase our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases
Evolutionary history of hominin brain size and phylogenetic comparative methods
No full textAn absolutely and relatively large brain has traditionally been viewed as a distinctive characteristic of the Homo genus, with anatomically modern humans presented at the apex of a long line of progressive increases in encephalization. Many studies continue to focus attention on increasing brain size in the Homo genus, while excluding measures of absolute and relative brain size of more geologically recent, smaller brained, hominins such as Homo floresiensis, and Homo naledi and smaller brained Homo erectus specimens. This review discusses the benefits of using phylogenetic comparative methods to trace the diverse changes in hominin brain evolution and the drawbacks of not doing so
An interdisciplinary realist take on moral agency
Get PDFThis paper reports an empirical study on moral reasoning. It seeks to answer two questions: in the moral framing of tourism matters, what does this reasoning consist of? How are these elements mobilized by actors to reach moral pronouncement(s)? Through the means of group interviews, abduction and retroduction, this study finds that moral muteness (i.e. silence to socially unacceptable conduct) seems to be the moral pronouncement that the participants are likely to conduct in a condition whereby the social and cultural systems being perceived insufficient to protect individuals who pursue a righteous action. The analysis reveals that (1) moral template, reflexivity, self-efficacy and emotions are constitutive elements of moral agency; (2) these agential properties permit the emergence of four moral reasoning processes, which explain moral muteness
Disabled people’s experiences of higher education during the time of the Coronavirus pandemic: pasts, presents, and futures. Research report
No full textThe purpose of this research was to explore the lived experiences of pandemic-era
higher education from the perspective of disabled students and staff. Four research
questions were explored, which focused on participants’ experiences of higher education
from the start of the pandemic until the time of their sharing of data for the project (RQ1);
comparisons regarding how they were finding pandemic higher education to higher
education before the Coronavirus pandemic (RQ2); what their hopes and fears were for a
future higher education sector (RQ3); and their recommendations for making a ‘post-
pandemic’ academia more accessible and inclusive (RQ4)
Fop, bounder and post-feminist father: Hugh Grant and the changing face of modern masculinity
Get PDFExtant research on Hugh Grant’s star image routinely combines issues of masculinity, sexuality and national identity. Such work concludes that the stumbling, stammering English gent that he mastered for the character of Charles Thacker in Four Weddings and a Funeral or the dishonourable bounder and morally reprehensible cad that he played so brilliantly in Bridget Jones’s Diary is a perfect fit with the man himself. Either way, this article will consider the ways in which film critics and commentators have read and responded to Grant’s on-screen performances and off-screen persona in order to open up a dialogue about shifting iterations of masculinity. Grant is routinely at the forefront of changing definitions of modern manhood, morphing from New Man to New Lad before being constructed and circulated as a figurehead of post-feminist fatherhood. In short, Grant stands as a testament to the very fluid, flexible and shifting nature of the hegemonic hierarchy
Educator views regarding young people’s aspirations in peripheral coastal communities in England: a Q study
Get PDFIn this paper, we deploy data collected through a Q study with educators in south-west England. The mixed methodology involved the two stages of forced choice statement sorting by educator participants and subsequent factor analysis. Through abductive analyses, four views regarding aspirations and young people in peripheral communities are identified. Of these, only one viewpoint, named ‘acknowledge the barriers to finding employment’, aligns with taken for granted narratives on encouraging school students to pursue careers in the knowledge economy, with transition to higher education being the acknowledged pathway to flourishing futures. Three further viewpoints are identified and discussed. The paper contributes new insights to understanding educational landscapes in peripheral places through employing a novel approach, that of Q method, to illuminate educators’ lived experiences in such communities
(sun)Flower Power
No full textThis series of triptych photographs is a symbolic protest against the war in Ukraine. For thousands of years in many European, Asia and African cultures, diverse symbolic meanings and languages have been assigned to flowers – this is “floriography”. Individual flower species have been associated with months of the year, used to express emotions from love to grief, and used to invoke peace.
The term "Flower Power" originated in Berkeley, California, emerging from protests against the Vietnam War. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg urged protesters, provided with "masses of flowers," to hand them to police officers, the press, politicians and spectators. The prints were made by repeatedly live-mixing videos of sunflowers using video processing software. The image of the sunflower shifts, slides and distorts but never disappears. It remains beautiful, and highly coloured, resilient despite the damage. Stills were selected from hours of videos and combined into triptychs.
The works are featured on the website 'Someone Prays for You', launched to raise funds for Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Since the initial launch of 'Someone Prays for You', artists Janet Cardiff, Stanislav Turina, David Blatherwick, Angela Andorrer Violetta Oliinyk, Michael Allgoewer, Denise Hawrysio, Germaine Koh, Halyna Regenbogen, and Jane Prophet have generously donated their works