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Identity awoken in second-generation British Poles in the UK—personal journeys
Get PDFWe examine the identity of British Poles born in the UK, whose parents arrived as allied servicemen and their families, seeking asylum following WW2. The two authors are from this community, and here examine their British-Polish identity along with other second-generation Poles in the UK. These individuals grew up in distinct communities exposed to the Polish language and culture but with restricted contact with communist Poland. The themes of response to parents’ trauma experience, Polish identity in childhood and in midlife, Polish language, and visiting family in Poland were explored. Many described parents as secretive about the horrors of war but keen to retain and propagate their Polish identity. Some felt they were not fully Polish, but their identity increased with access to modern Poland as adults. The Polish language was important to identity but linked to feeling inadequacy when not fluent. Visiting family in Poland enhanced identity, was valued, and provided information on family history. European identity was adopted by some to cover both their British and Polish identity. Genealogy and family history are popular and linked to community, and British Poles have a distinct contribution and a voice in showing how identity can emerge out of family trauma
On Deep Home by The Surreal McCoy
No full textAn exploration of the representation of migrant Iraqi voices from a feminist perspective, through the medium of an autobiographical comic by The Surreal McCoy
Creating social media profiles
No full textWant to progress in academia? I provide you with practical, step-by-step guidance on creating academic social media profiles, leaving you better prepared to climb the academic career ladder. You will learn about the benefits and drawbacks of social media, and get familiar with Google Scholar Profiles, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Twitter, and Blogging, discovering how to get the best out of these social media platforms. Using plenty of examples, this guide will help demystify social media in academia and provide you with the tools to be successful in your own social media efforts
Book review: Prasad Kurian, Life in Organizations: Paradoxes, Dilemmas and Possibilities
No full textPrasad Kurian, Life in Organizations: Paradoxes, Dilemmas and Possibilities. Chennai: Notion Press Media Private Limited, 2021. 140 pp. ₹190
A new analytical approach for the local radial point interpolation discretisation in space and applications to high-order in time schemes for two-dimensional fractional PDEs
No full textIn weak-form formulations of the local radial point interpolation method (LRPIM) for the solution of partial differential equations, space discretisation matrices have most often been obtained entirely through numerical integration. This work introduces a novel approach which derives closed-form expressions for obtaining the entries of the discretisation matrix for the solution of two-dimensional time-fractional diffusion problems. This analytical approach also yields a closed-form formula for the approximation of the Laplacian. These techniques are then applied for developing LRPIM-based numerical algorithms. Since the exact solutions usually have unbounded first-order time derivatives at time zero, a graded mesh is employed for a high-order in time approximation of the Caputo derivative. The analytical shape functions are used to develop a weak-form algorithm and a strong-form algorithm is developed using the analytical approximation of the Laplacian. We demonstrate that computed solutions obtained using the weak-form and strong-form algorithms have the accuracy levels consistent with the theoretical accuracy in space. An appropriate choice of the mesh grading parameter yields a high-order convergence rate in time. The unconditional stability and convergence of a LRPIM strong form algorithm on a uniform temporal mesh is established under the assumption that the exact solution has sufficient regularity
What is an image? Roundtable transcription, International Visual Sociology Association annual conference, 16 September 2022
No full textSince its inception, the IVSA and visual sociologists have felt a kinship with practitioners in other disciplines. Visual studies has developed into a vibrant interdisciplinary field of study, one that spans the social sciences, arts, and humanities. As interrelated intellectual arenas, visual studies, visual sociology, and visual culture all tend to view images as central to the formation of meaning in the social world.
In this year’s Roundtable, we asked a diverse range of scholars and practitioners to consider what an image is today. In our twenty-first century culture, defined by rapid technological change and innovation, the very notion of an image has shifted dramatically. The visual is everywhere; it is arguably the most potent and ubiquitous form of communication today. In what manner has technology transformed our understandings of what an image can be? New technologies, networks, and infrastructures have impacted on both theory and practice – and have led to a radical shift in contemporary aesthetics and visual languages. And the ideological stakes brought to bear by visuality today are entangled with pernicious forms of social control: from the perils of consumer capitalism to the dangers of political propaganda. As scholar Alexis Boylan reminds us, ‘the visual surrounds us, some of it invited, most of it not.
Combatting grand corruption alongside state-building: the role of the South Sudan Anti-Corruption Commission and the Episcopal Church of South Sudan in defence of the common good
No full textThis thesis investigates experiential grand corruption, involving different actors, and institutions in the interim and post-independent South Sudan. The grand corruption phenomenon is critical as South Sudan also undergoes state building, especially after separating from Sudan in 2011. I examine two institutions that, in theory, are tasked to hold the government to account: the South Sudan Anti-Corruption Commission (SSACC), a state actor, and the Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS), a non-state actor. I approached the study phenomenologically, using qualitative methods to analyse and interpret data.
When the SPLM/A transformed from a rebel movement into a government, first autonomous and later an independent state, South Sudan confronted levels of corruption that are detrimental to the common good and building an ideal-type state. Mutations of grand corruption showed a problematic increase in contest between moulding the government infrastructure around elites' private interests, against building and strengthening state institutions for the common good of citizens.
The thesis demonstrates that oversight institutions are constrained and hampered in their efforts to combat grand corruption for various reasons ranging from institutional foot-dragging to active menaces and threats by elites who chose to cross moral boundaries for private interests. The thesis shows that ECSS, collectively and individually, could —and are expected to— provide a counterweight to check the government. Albeit this role has gradually diminished post-independence, partly due to compromises to its moral standing, because of corruption itself and power struggle.
SSACC's effectiveness faced obstructions by top elites who used power to create procedural conveniences to limit capacities to combat grand corruption, for instance, through legislation. Consequently, this thesis argues that combating grand corruption requires an additional approach, the moral and ethical layer, a role churches could and ought to fulfil. This moral (integrity) layer contributes to the literature on (grand) corruption, which in the South Sudan context, is a role played by the ECSS, calling out elites and confronting their private interests to defend the common good
Measuring and improving research impact
No full textWant to progress in academia? I provide you with step-by-step guidance on measuring, evidencing, and improving research impact, leaving you better prepared to climb the academic career ladder. You will learn about the multi-faceted nature of impact, how to measure, evidence, and improve it, but also about impactful research processes, with the values of equity, openness, collegiality, soundness, and community. Using plenty of examples, this guide will help to demystify the role of research impact in academia and provide you with the tools to be successful in your own efforts to improve your impact
Researching racism in nursing: reflexive accounts and personal stories
No full textResearch shows that racism affects the working lives of nurses and nurse academics, as well as healthcare service delivery and outcomes. This book looks at the impact of racism, from experiences of microaggression to discrimination and structural and institutionalised racism.
Focusing on the work of six doctoral researchers and practitioners who have chosen to address and investigate the racism they experience, witness or observe in the UK’s National Health Service and Universities, this book includes personal reflections on their findings. The substantive chapters are framed by a discussion of policy and research on racism, thoughts on research supervision within this field and a drawing together of the key themes developed through this book.
Giving voice to nurses’ and lecturers’ responses to racism in nursing education and practice, this is an important contribution for students, researchers and practitioners with an interest in health inequalities, healthcare organisations, research methods and workforce development
The impact of stressors on the relationship between personality traits, knowledge collection behaviour and programmer creativity intention in software engineering
Get PDFContext
Individual and contextual factors have a profound impact on an individual's creativity. In the first part of this research, we concluded that, for a programmer's creativity intention, individual factors including big 5 personality traits and knowledge collection behaviour play a key role. However, it is important to bring contextual factors into the model to provide a holistic understanding.
Objectives
Hence, the objective of the present research is to expand the earlier work by (i) identifying the software engineering occupational stressors relevant to programmers, and (ii) examining their impact as moderators for the relationship between individual factors (i.e., big five personality traits and knowledge collection behaviour) and the creativity intention of the programmer.
Methods
To analyse the moderating impact of 6 stressors, the survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 294 programmers working in software companies in Pakistan. The data were analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) – Partial Least Square (PLS) technique.
Results
The findings revealed that in the presence of a moderate level of stress, the relationship between knowledge collection behaviour and creativity intention was strengthened. Furthermore, stressors interacted differently with different personality traits. An overarching statement could be that most of the stressors positively moderated the relationships between different personality traits and creativity intentions. However, contrary to the prior research, the majority of the stressors negatively affected the impact of the openness to experience trait on creativity intention.
Conclusion
The research significantly contributes to the body of knowledge of behavioural software engineering. The findings of this research are novel and intriguing in many aspects and will benefit software organizations to increase innovation, by increasing programmers’ creativity through mitigating stress. The study is also one of the few studies which have attempted to understand the interaction between individual and contextual factors with a programmer's creativity