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Regional variations in urban trash: connections between litter communities and place
No full textLitter is a pervasive social and environmental issue that continues to evade effective and sustainable mitigation strategies. As the nature of waste items can influence methods and rates of littering, an understanding of litter typologies associated with specific sites has the potential to inform targeted anti-littering efforts. In this study, data analysis methods from ecology were applied to litter surveys to evaluate patterns among urban litter items found in two types of streets in England (High Streets and Central Business Districts). The results indicate that sites characterised as a High Street (predominantly leisure activities such as shopping and dining) contained lower densities and less variety yet featured litter items with a higher potential for environmental contamination than sites categorised as Central Business Districts (identified by high numbers of professional workers and transport links). Although litter was significantly different between sites, the litter community structure was not. Our results suggest that litter typologies and associated activities can lead to specific knowledge of key influential items in a site and inform future evidence-based and sustainable mitigation systems
Geographies of entitled anger: Revanchist populism in Brazil and beyond
Get PDFIn an age of resurgent populism, emotional geographies play an underexamined yet pivotal role in explaining cross-class alliances that have enabled particularly angry forms of revanchist politics across world regions. This essay delineates the notion of “revanchist populism” and its grounding in “entitled anger,” as well as self-righteous geographical imaginations more broadly, to shed new light on the Brazilian case in recent years, which is further explored in this special issue. Beyond Brazil, we suggest how this approach can be used to bring a more geographical perspective to related iterations of revanchist populism elsewhere in the world and across the political spectrum, from Venezuela to Turkey, and Argentina to India
Zombie self-determination? Johannes Socher, Russia and the Right to Self-Determination in the Post-Soviet Space Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021
Get PDFHas there been state practice of the Russian Federation with regard to self-determination, since the collapse of the USSR in December 1991? This is the question posed by Johannes Socher. There is more to his question than might at first appear. In particular Socher is persuaded by what has been called the “Estonian School of International Law” , and Lauri Mälksoo, whose phrase it is. First, I explore what in my view is really good about Socher’s new book. I also emphasise his commendably wide frame of reference, drawing on German as well as Russian scholars, introducing many of them for the first time to an English-speaking audience. Second, I analyse some scholars, especially Fisch, on whom Socher relies, who proclaim the death of self-determination. Third, I delve more deeply into the question which Socher has posed for himself, which he makes quite explicit, and which colours what follows. I question the use he makes of the concepts of “sovereignty”, and “hegemony”, the second of which is made to bear more argumentative weight than is usual in texts on international law. Fourth, I outline Socher’s structure. I look more closely and critically at Socher’s seven Case Studies. Finally, I assert that the key to understanding the Russian attitude to self-determination in the years after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 is to be found in the extraordinarily hostile attitude of Vladimir Putin, towards not only Vladimir Lenin, but in particular the federative principle on which Lenin insisted in the first Soviet constitutions
High Greek bank net interest margins, recapitalisations and competition
Get PDFThis study examines the factors underlying the notably high Greek bank net interest margins compared to the euro-area average, with a partcular focus on the interplay between bank competition and recapitalisations. Employing dynamic panel analysis from the early 2000s to 2021, we address potential endogeneity concerns and heterogeneity considerations. Additionally, we utilise local projections impulse response functions to account for structural shifts within the Greek banking landscape. Our findings reveal that diminished bank competition has played a significant role in driving up net interest margins in Greece. Intriguingly, the impact of Greek recapitalisations, in parallel with market conditions characterised by a low level of bank competition, has further contributed to high net interest margins. Supported by evidence from local projections impulse response functions, our study emphasises the necessity of accelerating the banking union and implementing a common regulatory framework across the euro-area. Setting caps on bank interest margins and fees could be a sensible practical recommendation. Such measures are crucial for fostering a more competitive banking environment and mitigating the persistently high net interest margins observed in the Greek banking industry
Migration at the end of empire: time and the politics of departure between Italy and Egypt
No full textBook synopsis: How has migration shaped Mediterranean history? And what role did conflicting temporalities and the politics of departure play in the age of decolonisation? Using a microhistorical approach, Migration at the End of Empire explores the experiences of over 55,000 Italian subjects in Egypt during the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before 1937, Ottoman-era legal regimes fostered the coupling of nationalism and imperialism among Italians in Egypt, particularly as the fascist government sought to revive the myth of Mare Nostrum. With decolonisation, however, Italians began abandoning Egypt en masse. By 1960, over 40,000 had deserted Egypt; some as 'emigrants,' others as 'repatriates,'and still others as 'national refugees.' The departed community became an emblem around which political actors in post-colonial Italy and Egypt forged new ties. Anticipated, actual, and remembered departures of Italians from Egypt are at the heart of this book's ambition to rethink European and Mediterranean periodisation
Coronial investigations: past deaths and future lives
No full textThis chapter considers the interaction between law and death in the context of coroners’ investigations in England and Wales. Coroners are independent judicial office holders with responsibility for investigating deaths that were violent or unnatural, occurred in any form of state detention, or are of unknown cause. Where deemed necessary by the coroner, an investigation culminates in an inquest: a public court hearing at which the coroner (occasionally sitting with a jury) hears written and/or oral evidence to determine the facts of the death. The inquest addresses four key questions: who died, how they died, when they died and where the death occurred.
The role of the coroner is ancient—having originated in the twelfth century—but evolving. In this chapter, we argue that the past two to three decades have seen a shift in the focus of coronial investigations from past to future. This shift towards a future orientation is manifest most clearly in the growing emphasis placed on the coroner’s responsibility—a statutory duty under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009—to report on actions that should be taken to avert the risk of further deaths in similar circumstances, where there are concerns about such risk. In other words, there is an expectation that the coronial investigation should ultimately help to save lives. Concern with the future is also implicit in policy and practice discourse, which places a high value on responsiveness to bereaved people’s needs and thus suggests an ambition to help reclaim lives scarred by loss
Depopulating landscapes: methodology and the materiality of archives in Calabria
No full textThis chapter explores the question of archives destroyed by neglect, decay, and natural events. It argues that these archives pose specific problems to apprehending the pasts, presents, and futures of depopulation, especially in the context of anthropogenic climate change. Earthquakes, floods, landslides, and fires have rendered visible political and cultural processes, but their effects are often obscured by the destruction of archives. This paper, therefore, aims to interrogate how material processes influence and shape history. My concern with ‘materiality’ is rooted in the potential of neglected archives and physical landscapes to provide different levels of historical data. On one hand they serve as situated repositories of information about the past; on the other hand, they bear witness to the process of emptying as materials of that same past. People’s relationship with these archives, then, is often in dialogue with their relationship to the very landscapes they inhabit. While many archives have been neglected or destroyed, this abandonment was at times a choice, a decision to disregard norms of an increasingly bureaucratic state and to inhabit a place, even as it emptied. By interrogating these problems, Depopulating Landscapes enhances the analytic tools we have to comprehend how people and land have been mutually constituted through history, and how scholars can access, assess, and study these stories
Balancing act – take two: The experiences of parents and carers in the post-pandemic performing arts
Get PDF‘I needed more than answers‘: Bereaved people’s expectations of the coronial process
Get PDFThis report is one of a series of Research Findings papers produced by the Voicing Loss project, which examined the role of bereaved people in coroners’ investigations and inquests. Voicing Loss was conducted by the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London, in partnership with the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. The project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant reference ES/V002732/1), and ran from May 2021 to May 2024
Predicting life engagement and happiness from gaming motives and primary emotional traits before and during the COVID pandemic: a machine learning approach
Get PDFThe present study investigated whether life engagement and happiness can be predicted from gaming motives and primary emotional traits. Two machine learning algorithms (random forest model and one-dimensional convolutional neural network) were applied using a dataset from before the COVID-19 pandemic as the training dataset. The algorithms derived were then applied to test if they would be useful in predicting life engagement and happiness from gaming motives and primary emotional systems on a dataset collected during the pandemic. The best prediction values were observed for happiness with ρ = 0.758 with explained variance of R2 = 0.575 when applying the best performing algorithm derived from the pre-COVID dataset to the COVID dataset. Hence, this shows that the derived algorithm based on the pre-pandemic data set, successfully predicted happiness (and life engagement) from the same set of variables during the pandemic. Overall, this study shows the feasibility of applying machine learning algorithms to predict life engagement and happiness from gaming motives and primary emotional systems
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