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The Glyphosate saga continues: ‘Dissenting’ member states and the European way forward
Get PDFA decision will soon have to be taken regarding the renewal of approval of glyphosate at EU level. Nonetheless, this pesticidal active substance is more controversial than ever. This article critically assesses different strategies pursued by EU Member States and regional authorities that challenge the EU approach to glyphosate and aim to safeguard their higher levels of public health and environmental protection. It reflects on the prospects of success of these strategies, and their compatibility with EU law. The analysis encompasses the action for the annulment of glyphosate’s 2017 re-approval brought by the Brussels-Capital Region, the Austrian attempt to enact a blanket ban on glyphosate-based pesticidal formulations, and the more sophisticated strategies pursued by Luxemburg and France. The article concludes that, while France has set an example, adopting the French approach may prove rather difficult for other Member States. An EU-wide strategy on glyphosate is urgently needed
Making sense of an artwork: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of participants’ accounts of viewing a well-known painting.
Get PDFThis work explores the meaning-making activities described by participants as they viewed a well-known painting. Research into aesthetic engagement has implicated an array of cognitive, affective, and perceptual processes. Types and aspects of artworks and of viewers have been investigated and a wide range of contextual factors have been identified as influential on viewer and viewed. The complexity of aesthetic experience is such that increasingly, a multidisciplinary approach toward its study has been encouraged. Despite this, experiential investigations into art-viewing are few. This study involves interviews with 12 participants, each conducted while viewing Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, three Group Experiential Themes were derived. Of these, “Meaning-Making, Interpretative Content,” is presented singly to allow for depth of discussion. This theme captures participants’ interpretative activities during viewing, exploring how they made sense of what they saw. Considerations of temporality, historicity, and social context were particularly prominent. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved
Cutting and pasting: The Print Room at Woodhall Park, Hertfordshire
Get PDFThis article explores the exemplary surviving print room at Woodhall Park in Hertfordshire, created in 1782 for Sir Thomas Rumbold. A professional named “R. Parker” pasted more than 350 prints around the walls of this interior; the results were then carefully recorded in a catalogue and set of elevation diagrams. The first section, “Space”, analyses the print room within the broader context of the house, in order to connect exterior and interior, explore the relative qualities of “public” and “private” space, and consider neoclassical style as worked out in various media. The second, “Display”, unpacks the pasted scheme, looking at the relationship between “background” images and “starring” works, and that between iconography and pattern-making. The final part explores “Making”, analysing the processes by which prints were selected, trimmed, given paper borders, and arranged around the walls. This discussion considers both the degree to which the intermedial object of the reproductive print was translated into a trompe l’œil painting or sculpture in such schemes, and the creative work of collaging at play. The analysis in this article weaves together textual discussion with still and moving images, film, and animation. Combining these techniques, it aims to provide full documentation and analysis of the scheme, and to engage with embodied, mobile, and temporally determined viewing experience in both the house and the print room
Research on language teachers’ emotion labour and emotional well-being. A critical analysis and suggestions for further research
Get PDFThis critical overview examines the body of literature on language instructors’ emotion labour, with the aim of providing insights into the aspects of teachers’ work that positively and negatively impact their emotional well-being, as well as possible strategies to help them flourish. Research in this novel area was divided into three broadly chronological categories for analysis: pioneering studies, qualitative studies with a specific focus, and more methodologically diverse studies. The findings indicated that societal attitudes influenced the institution, resulting in differing levels of pressure or support experienced by the teachers. Emotion labour was found to stem from teachers’ beliefs conflicting with those held at an institutional level or beyond, as well as from interactions with the learners, and could have positive and/or negative outcomes. One of the worst possible outcomes is burn-out. Agency, empathy, and reflection were among the strategies to emerge with the potential to neutralise negative outcomes. The article concludes with suggestions for further research
Influence of fault system geometry and slip rates on the relative role of coseismic and interseismic stresses on earthquake triggering and recurrence variability
Get PDFWe model Coulomb stress transfer (CST) due to 30 strong earthquakes occurring on normal faults since 1509 CE in Calabria, Italy, including the influence of interseismic loading, and compare the results to existing studies of stress interaction from the Central and Southern Apennines, Italy. The three normal fault systems have different geometries and long-term slip-rates. We investigate the extent to which stress transfer can influence the occurrence of future earthquakes and what factors may govern the variability in earthquake recurrence in different fault systems. The Calabrian, Central Apennines, and Southern Apennines fault systems have 91%, 73%, and 70% of faults with mean positive cumulative CST in the time considered; this is due to fewer faults across strike, more across strike stress reductions, and greater along-strike spacing in the three
regions respectively. In regions with close along strike spacing or few faults across strike, such as Calabria and Southern Apennines, the stress loading history is mostly dominated by interseismic loading and most faults are positively stressed before an earthquake occur on them (96% of all faults that ruptured in Calabria; 94% of faults in Southern Apennines), and some of the strongest earthquakes occur on faults with the highest mean cumulative stress of all faults prior to the earthquake. In the Central Apennines, where across strike interactions are the predominant process, 79% of earthquakes occur on faults positively stressed. The results highlight that fault system geometry plays a central role in characterizing the stress evolution associated with earthquake recurrence
Debate: can audit reduce information asymmetry? The case of English local government
Get PDFThe financial transparency of public bodies is frequently ‘taken for granted’ and ‘not fully investigated’ (Langella et al., Citation2023, p. 585). However, as Van Helden et al. (Citation2023) argue, the danger of ‘accounting information manipulation’ is a real and present one across government. It potentially invites a whole series of negative outcomes, from corruption and misspending to the wrongful allocation of resources (Van Helden et al., 2023; Bradley, Favotto, et al., Citation2023)
Austerity, poverty and inequality: a political economy perspective
Get PDFAusterity, as an economic policy for reducing government deficits and public debt through cuts in government spending, tax increases or a combination of the two, made a degree of sense prior the early 20th century. There were few public services, no income tax, and very little in the way of unemployment and health support. As a result, national finances could be more convincingly compared to those of a household or business; and the poor remained largely unaffected. However, during the industrial revolution, the exponential growth of the urban poor, themselves in dire need of public support, ultimately led to the emergence and growth of the welfare state. This completely changed the dynamics of the political economy – and with it, austerity. Since modern welfare states were largely evolved to support the poor and most vulnerable in society, the costs of austerity are disproportionately borne by these groups. It can therefore be expected to deepen both poverty and inequality, in a self-reinforcing, politically driven cycle. This chapter explores these dynamics, lays bare the political drivers and socio-economic effects of austerity, and demonstrates that events of the past century and a quarter have overtaken it as an economic policy for reducing government deficits and debt
Remind you of anyone? Comparing the gendered heroic leadership of Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May
Get PDFThis article compares how Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May used their gender to style themselves as ‘heroic’ and radical outsiders to govern within a highly masculine office. It examines in turn three important components: the style, the radical ideology and the support and control of their inner courts.
Though they drew on a similar heroic ‘personalist’ style, there were vital differences. Thatcher’s approach thrived because it was connected to success, but May’s came undone after the snap election of 2017. Ideologically, May tied herself to more rigid aims with less care or caution than Thatcher, and she failed to communicate or narrate her approach as Thatcher could. In her inner court, May’s attempts to dominate Cabinet with a ‘parallel control system’ came rapidly unstuck, while Thatcher’s thrived. In terms of context, May governed during the more brittle politics of Brexit, over a far more deeply divided Cabinet and party. Using these two cases, we argue that a gendered heroic role requires success, a flexible ideology, and ability to control your inner court, all in the right context
Emerging economies: nature and dynamics
No full textThe concept of emerging countries or economies or markets dates to the early 1980’s but there is no universally agreed definition of an emerging country (Ithurbide and Bellaiche, 2019). Countries
earmarked as emerging economies are key global players in the twenty-first century global economy. These emerging economies are characterised by increasing levels of economic growth
driven by the adoption of liberalized economic policies that result in stable energy regimes and a continually improving economic imperatives and information communication technology systems.
Indeed, Wright et al., (2005) did not only acknowledge the rapid changes taking place in emerging economies but also noted they are progressively playing increasingly prominent role in the world
economy. The rise to prominence of emerging economies in the global economy is further substantiated by the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) into these economies that hit a
record value of 849 billion USD in 2002 (UNCTAD, 2003). Similarly, there has been upsurge in emerging economy related research including pioneering studies such as Hoskisson et al., (2000)
work on ‘Strategy in emerging economies’; the insightful book on ‘Doing Business in Emerging Markets’ by Cavusgil et al., (2002); and the work on ‘Business Strategies in Transition Economies’
by Peng (2000) among others. The rise to global prominence of emerging economies has not accidental but a deliberate act of ‘planning’, ‘investments’, and ‘mobilization of human
endowments of the respective countries (Cavusgil, (2021). The nature of emerging economies is characterised by obvious common features. However, the dynamics within emerging economies showcases distinctive differences with critical implications for corporate management ecosystem practice and research in emerging economies
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