Search

This paper analyses the working practices of several feminist creative and cultural enterprises in London (which I term 'feminist CCIs'). In particular, it shows how pandemic precarity has driven feminist CCIs towards more entrepreneurial, self-promotional, and self-branding practices in order to sustain their work. Drawing on both digital ethnographic material and interviews with 12 workers in feminist CCIs conducted online between 2020 and 2022, the article provides insights into the landscape and contemporary realities of arts and cultural funding within these fields. It considers how decades of austerity measures and cuts have forced some feminist CCIs to operate independently outside of the UK public sector funding models. Survival tactics include adopting corporate funding models, subscription and membership schemes, platformisation and digitalisation. Focusing on funding, money and subjectivity, it unpacks the contradictions these imperatives bring to feminist politics: tensions about which some feminist CCI workers themselves are aware of and critical of. In the process, this paper considers how activism, feminism, entrepreneurialism, and precarity are fused together and negotiated in this form of 'freelance feminism'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children and young people's (CYP) involvement is an increasing priority in UK healthcare and in heath research, alongside recognition that involving CYP in research requires different considerations to involving adults. Underpinned by children's rights and a co-production ethos this paper, co-authored with young evaluators, explores the learning from a co-produced evaluation of eyeYPAG, a young persons' research advisory group (YPAG) for eye and vision research based at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK. Methods: A team of young evaluators, supported by the eyeYPAG facilitator, conducted focus groups and online surveys with YPAG members, their parents and carers, researchers, group facilitators and funders. Qualitative data was analysed using a collaborative reflexive thematic analysis approach. Quantitative data, limited by the small number of participants, was analysed in Excel and reported as descriptive data. Results: CYP valued the social and creative aspects of the group as well as learning about research and developing skills and confidence. Learning was a two-way process, with both researchers and facilitators reflecting on how much they had learnt from working with the YPAG. All participants talked about the importance of impact, feeling that CYP are making a difference to research, as well as CYP's right to be involved. Effective planning and facilitation were key to the success of the group, in relation to accessibility and the development and delivery of sessions both online and in-person. Resourcing and administration were key challenges to this, as was engaging researchers who were not already converted to the public involvement cause. As the nature of a YPAG is that it primarily focuses on advising researcher-led projects, co-production was identified as something that the group was 'working towards', including through this evaluation. Co-producing with CYP involves building up knowledge, confidence and acknowledging power dynamics. Conclusions: Co-producing an evaluation enabled us to learn about the benefits and challenges of involving CYP in research, as well as how to involve them in the development of that evidence. An ethos of co-production and children's rights helped to shift the balance of power and develop more engaging and inclusive ways of working. Plain English summary: Children and young people (CYP) have a right to be involved in things that affect them, including research. There is growing interest in children and young people's involvement in health research in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as understanding that what works for CYP is often different to what works for adults. This paper presents an evaluation of the Young Person's Advisory Group (YPAG) at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. Evaluation uses research methods to find out how well a service or project is working and meeting the needs of those who use it, and how to improve things that could be better. A group of young evaluators, supported by adult researchers, designed and ran the evaluation; three of the young evaluators also helped write this paper. In our evaluation we used focus (discussion) groups and online surveys with young group members, their parents and carers, researchers who had worked with the group, the group's facilitators (adults who help manage the group) and funders. We found that group members valued the social and creative aspects of the group as well as learning about research and developing skills and confidence. Learning was a two-way process, with both researchers and facilitators talking about how much they had learnt from working with the YPAG. All participants talked about the importance of feeling that CYP are making a difference to research, as well as of CYP's right to be involved. Planning and support were important to the group working well, but we found that having the money and time to do this well was not always easy. And, while lots of researchers were keen to work with the group, and talked about how this had helped their research, we need to do more to engage researchers who have yet to be convinced. We also found that, while we wanted to 'co-produce' the group and share power for all big decisions, this was something we had to work towards, especially when group members were young and/or new to research and involvement. Co-producing an evaluation helped us to learn about the benefits and challenges of involving CYP in research, as well as how to involve them in evaluating that involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the gap between people and rule (demos and kratos) in democratic societies by exploring the history and practice of broad-based community organising, as applied by London Citizens, United Kingdom (UK). The paper outlines the origins of this model of politics and how it has been translated from the United States to London and the UK. The paper highlights the power of mobilising the demos to put pressure on the decision-making governance structures that determine the kratos. While London Citizens does this through kratos-at-a-distance, the article goes on to explore how hyper-local, neighbourhood-scaled governance structures—'community councils'—could provide a powerful tool to further connect demos to kratos. Such councils could underpin a democratic revival that combines representation and participation at the scale at which people still live their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether fidelity was achieved in the self-translation of Friday sermons by imam Mohammed Ewes. Ewes is an Egyptian Muslim imam who immigrated to the United Kingdom in 1996. When writing this paper, he had been preaching at Al-Birr Mosque in London for 25 years. To the best of the authors' knowledge, he is one of the few Muslim imams in the Islamic world to have self-translated and compiled his religious sermons into a single book. This study adopts the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach to analyze the data. We extracted the data from Ewes's book Pulpit Sermons in Arabic and English, written in Arabic and self-translated into English by Ewes himself. Specifically, we selected eight sermons randomly from the book. We analyzed the data using Ajunwa's (2015) approach to assessing fidelity in translation. The findings show that fidelity was not achieved in the self-translation because the self-translator did not produce a faithful and accurate translation. Therefore, the self-translation of Ewes's Friday sermons cannot be regarded as a true translation but as a rewritten translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Discussion Papers is the property of Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents a new approach to an old problem, the provincial reception of the image of Roman emperors. Applying 3D computer modelling, we captured the portrait features of Hadrian as represented on coinage minted for the British province, produced a 3D model from a coin and compared it with the bronze head of Hadrian found in London. The aim was to test the possibility, previously posited by other scholars, that the London portrait might have been produced by an artisan who used coin portraits of the emperor as his main – if not only – model. More generally, the paper examines the dependencies of coinage and sculpture on shared models and applies new technology to Roman portrait studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bilimname is the property of IBAV (Research Foundation of Theological Science) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This In Perspective paper reflects on the use by men and women of entrepreneurship support organisations (ESOs). It arose through an inquiry conducted in partnership by London South Bank University and Shared Enterprise, the latter being an ESO based in London. As part of the inquiry, a small number of other ESOs in London were interviewed, who revealed that the majority of their participants were women, although the gender imbalance is not as extreme as is the case with Shared Enterprise. On the other hand, far more enterprises in Britain are led by men than are led by women. According to the Longitudinal Small Business Survey (LSBS), only 20% of very small businesses (no employees) were led by women, and 60% were led solely by a man. A similar proportion – 19% – of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with employees was defined as led by women. A combination of interviews with Shared Enterprise participants and a desk review leads to a (tentative) solution to this seemingly puzzling paradox: women who aspire to entrepreneurship use ESOs more than men because they need them more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Church of England's historic buildings represent the single largest group of heritage sites in the UK, playing a key public-facing role in the church's 'cultural witness'. However, they are complex historic environments implicated in the recent focus on 'contested heritage' and imperial legacies. The wider heritage sector's answer to the adversarial nature of this debate has been to turn contested histories into dialogical opportunities; participatory and collaborative approaches to interpretation and curation have become an important feature of much recent secular heritage work. Yet, the CofE has not yet articulated or embraced the value of similar initiatives for its own collections, with guidance at the institutional level aimed primarily at conservation and protection. This paper initiates a discussion about how engagement with sensitive memories enhances the importance of CofE's cultural heritage. It offers a preliminary report of a research project led by the author titled 'Inclusive Interpretations of Christian Heritage', carried out between 2021 and 2022 at iconic churches in central London. After discussing the theoretical context, project rationale, and method, the paper discusses the connections which Christians from ethnic minority or immigrant backgrounds have to ecclesiastical spaces usually associated with national history. The perspectives of previously unrepresented groups can supplement expert assessments concerning a site's significance, revealing important areas in which the CofE's cultural assets hold meaning beyond national or aesthetic importance. The paper argues that widening community engagement represents a crucial task for accentuating the social and civic importance of the CofE's cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will chart the multiple ways that regulated tenants in my family home of Webb Place, a tenement building in Kensington, London, experience gentrification-induced displacement. I then discuss how community and creativity play a part in their resistance and survival. Landlords and property management companies have subjected regulated tenants, in this specific context, to a long process of 'slow violence' and displacement that has included negligence and harassment intended to stress, harm, anger, and ultimately push out residents. Not only does this 'slow violence' occur behind the closed door of the building but so does resistance to it. Communal interaction and creativity have helped regulated tenants to mock power structures and repurpose space while also trying to survive the gentrification of their home. While this displacement is not unique to regulated tenants, this paper adds to much-needed theoretical work that centres on regulated tenants—indeed, in-depth analysis of gentrification and displacement among this subfield is essentially non-existent in the UK, until now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extensive and burgeoning literature on the productivity of urban farms and gardens is largely focused on measures of crop yield and resource use, with little offered to date on their contribution to social productivity and sustainability. This paper suggests that evaluation of urban agriculture should consider all types of resource consumption and productivity simultaneously. The research reported here used a citizen science approach to collect data from seven community gardens and one community farm in London, UK in the 2019 and 2020 growing seasons. The paper examines the many variables that impact the sites' overall performance, highlighting the complex nature and relationship between the many benefits and outcomes of urban farms and gardens. Data are presented on crop yield, equivalent fruit and vegetable portions, input use (including water and fertilizer), journeys made to the garden by volunteers, social benefits, and social outreach. Results show very mixed levels of crop and social productivity, depending on the organizational structure and agenda of the various sites included in the study. With no clear pattern emerging, this paper suggests that the evaluation of citywide productivity, often based on projections of small data samples, may not be reliable. By ensuring that training opportunities for volunteers are made available, higher resource efficiency as well as higher productivity could be attained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Distinguishing what employers in different areas of Great Britain need to pay to attract and retain labour has been a central component of public-sector resource allocation decisions. This paper examines how changes in the pattern of spatial wage differentials following the global financial crisis have impacted on the formulae which allocate government funding to local government and health providers in the NHS. Design/methodology/approach: Using employer-reported data on earnings, we examine spatial patterns of private-sector wages in Great Britain between 2007 and 2017. The method permits the analysis of finely defined geographical areas and controls for differences in industry and workforce composition to distinguish those differences that are attributable from unmeasured characteristics, such as differences between areas in the cost of living and amenities. These standardised spatial wage differentials (SSWDs) underpin the funding allocation formulae. Findings: The analysis shows that since 2007 private-sector wage dispersion, both within and between regions, has reduced: lower paid areas have experienced a relative increase in wages and higher paid a relative decline. Over the period, there was a significant reduction in the London wage premium. Originality/value: This paper demonstrates the importance of ensuring established policies are applied using contemporary data. The SSWDs used to distribute government funds have not been re-estimated for some time. As a result, the current resource allocation model has overcompensated the London region and undercompensated others during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, produced by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Modelling, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis and the Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics, Imperial College, London, was presented to the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O), and then to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and considered at its 9th meeting on 20th February 2020. Published on Friday 12 June 2020. This paper demonstrated how little was known abut the effects of the pandemic at this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Discussion Papers is the property of Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ingegneria Ferroviaria is the property of Ingegneri Ferroviari and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This paper aims to explore problems facing the recruitment of accounting and finance staff in research-led universities. "University accounting and finance (A&F) departments are experiencing difficulty in attracting and retaining suitably qualified staff" (Duff and Monk, 2006, p. 194). The literature identifies a number of reasons for the shortage of A&F phenomenon (Duff and Monk, 2006; Smith and Urquhart, 2018), including, the wide salary gap between academe and industry profession, difficulty in achieving publications in highly rated journal, high workload in teaching and marking due the limited number of A&F staff. Design/methodology/approach: The paper provides new insights for the use of the grounded theory and how the theory has been generated from the semi-structured interviews. Findings: This study has resulted in eight main challenges emerged, and a final theory has been generated. Implications of this research on business schools are valuable in research-led universities, the A&F staff recruitment strategies and the A&F research strategies in research-led universities. Originality/value: The novelty of this research is based on the induction of the challenges that a business school faces, as a case study for a research-intensive teaching-led UK university, in recruiting new A and F appointees and retaining existing members of staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate projections suggest that the UK will be increasingly affected by climate-induced hazards in the future, exacerbating the potential for multihazard events to occur. This paper explores the extent to which climate resilience is being embedded in current and future rail transport infrastructure projects in London through use of a multihazard approach. It concludes that a multihazard approach is a relatively new concept and is therefore not currently being considered widely. However, opportunities for decision makers to explore its value to mitigate climate risks through collaborative working and further research exist – this paper recommends that two main stages are required to achieve this. Route 1 requires climate/hazard experts to identify and characterise the different hazard interactions that could occur, including their impact on the UK/London. Following this, route 2 involves the creation of multidisciplinary workshops to identify any multihazard vulnerabilities associated with different rail assets – potentially highlighting areas where further research is required. The paper concludes that although a London rail context has been adopted in order to understand the relevance of a multihazard approach, there is opportunity for it to be considered across many different sectors in the UK and the wider civil engineering industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impacts of the PREVENT Counter-Terrorism Strategy. The conclusion is reached that violence may be being promoted rather than prevented by government attempts to counter 'radicalisation' and 'extremism'. The motivation for this paper is the author's experience of the PREVENT Counter-Terrorism Strategy in a school in east London; and its main recommendation is that counter-extremism strategies can and should be contested. This conclusion, and the explanation for it, is reached by using a critical realist approach to Critical Discourse Analysis, supported by the framework of the semiotic triangle in the context of Bhaskar's transformational model of social activity. This brings in a time dimension that, it is argued, has previously been neglected in critical realist versions of Critical Discourse Analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses conflicts associated with policies to protect the built heritage. Such conflicts relate to a host of tensions between private and public concerns and specifically between pro-development and pro-conservation approaches. To examine these cleavages, the paper operationalises private and public concerns over heritage by asking if there is a recognisable set of justifications that policy-makers use for supporting a pro-conservation or alternatively a pro-development approach? To do this, the paper looks at appeals decided by Her Majesty’s Planning Inspectors in London. The findings show that although they are not dichotomous, public and private interests in heritage development can be factually recognised in the setting of appeals. Moreover, the paper finds that Planning Inspectors often channel conflicts through the prism of certain public interests, namely, protecting architectural and physical attributes of the building and its surroundings. Although inspectors are instructed to actively weigh in other (potentially overriding) considerations in heritage appeals, such as socio-economic and proprietary issues, these considerations do not appear to have the same standing within the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people arriving alone in the UK due to forced migration face significant hardships including, but not limited to, their history of experiences, current and future uncertainties, and cultural differences. This paper took a critical perspective of current dominant theories of refugee youth through in-depth exploration of lived experiences of coping. Following the authors' involvement in a community youth project and consultation, five young people took part in individual interviews. The participants were living in semi-independent accommodation in or near London, and were all male, while four identified as Muslim and one as Christian. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), a culturally relative understanding of coping was developed. These young people were found to be taking active roles in managing their lives in the context of extensive loss, and gaining independence through connection to others. Religious practices were important, with young people making sense of their experiences through worldviews shaped by religious beliefs. While religion was described predominantly in a positive and beneficial light, an area for further investigation is the experience of religious struggle, and how this may impact experiences and coping. Implications for support for young people both from services and in communities are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy policing remains 'a chronic feature of public order operations' (Waddington PAJ (1994) Liberty and Order: Public Order Policing in a Capital City. London: UCL Press), both in the form of officer numbers and in the proportionality of tactics employed. This paper argues that at the heart of this lies the assessment of threat and risk and how police commanders perceive, predict and manage the potential for disorder. It reports on the findings of a mixed-methods study, combining data from observations of three separate public order events, with in-depth interviews of seven high-level, police public order commanders from five different UK police forces. Analysis suggests that commanders construe 'risk' in very broad terms, seeking to mitigate not only physical harm but also abstract consequences such as reputational damage and loss of public confidence. Structured models central to the task of threat and risk assessment give the appearance of a quantitative and objective process. However, the actual appraisal of threat and risk, both before and during public order operations, is almost entirely heuristic. Furthermore, the analysis suggests commanders' decision-making is acutely affected by the pressure of accountability. It is argued that at a tacit level, their threat and risk assessments reflect this and a direct consequence is the deployment of additional police resources. At a time when the police service is under intense pressure to do more with less, this paper discusses how refining the assessment of threat and risk may prove to be a critical factor in the delivery of cost effective and proportionate public order policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The UK's purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector has seen significant institutional investment in recent decades. This paper unpacks contemporary trends and perspectives on the sector. It questions whether PBSA has moved from being an "alternative" to "mainstream" residential asset class, framing the analysis through the lens of market maturity. Design/methodology/approach: The methods triangulate perspectives drawn from literature on the evolution of PBSA as an asset class with illustrations of investment trends across the UK between 2005 and 2020 using data from Real Capital Analytics (RCA), combined with findings from 40 semi-structured interviews with investors and stakeholders in PBSA in the UK London is the focus of the work, whilst other regional cities are integrated for comparison. Findings: The results demonstrate that London's PBSA market is ahead of trends currently being replicated in regional cities. However, the regions currently offer greater return potential and opportunities for risk taking compared to London, where yields are compressed, and the market is considered lower risk. The concept of maturity remains useful as a framework for evaluating markets, however a more granular analysis of sectors is necessary to further understand asset classes within sectors. PBSA continues to trade at a premium across the UK; it is considered the most mature residential asset class. Practical implications: The emergence of PBSA as an asset class continues to play a developing role within the residential sector and UK investment market. Risk, value and local context remain key when integrating PBSA into institutional portfolios, and as the first to consider the UK market from a qualitative research approach, this research provides a snapshot of these influences in 2021. Originality/value: Our approach offers original insight into investment trends across the UK and is the first to focus reflections on the London market specifically. The research highlights the role of PBSA as a vanguard asset class for investors into residential, situating its growth within the framework of market maturity and drawing out market nuances from interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a hypothetical case study based around the benchmark land value assessments within the landmark Parkhurst Road, London, case decided in the High Court in April 2018. It attempts to illustrate how developers were gaming the system and how the 2014 Planning Practice Guidance aided them to do that. The discussion centres on the extent to which new 2018 National Planning Guidance has addressed the identified flaws and what additional changes might be needed to that guidance to solve any outstanding problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New business models, such as that of Airbnb, have led to a rise in the use of residential properties as short-term lets. In this paper, the writer considers the social efficiency of the use of the public town planning system and alternative private law systems, to regulate the activity. Specifically, the paper considers the use of these in order to tackle spill-over amenity effects upon neighbouring properties. The writer applies the general framework of Ellickson (1973) in performing a comparative economic analysis of the systems. This includes an analysis of the "90-nights" rule of UK planning law, which applies to London. The writer argues that in the specific case of short-term lets, the private law systems disclose relatively low transaction costs. This, in conjunction with their allocative efficiencies, makes them preferred to town planning. Taking into account the problem of nonconvexities, it is concluded that the "90-nights" rule, and the requirement for planning permission for shortterm lets, should be repealed. This conclusion encloses an understanding that the amenity effects considered here involve little uncertainty. The courts, if equipped with private information from litigants and public information from development plans, are well placed to regulate this activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Management Issues / Problemy Zarządzania is the property of Problemy Zarzadzania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article interrogates and expands understandings of millennial economic insecurity by focusing on the experiences of three people living in socially rented accommodation with their families of origin in Hackney, London. Taking into account the legacies of state violence that racialise Britain's political economy, I argue that millennial precarity requires theorisation across multiple temporalities in order to account for cumulative, intergenerational experience as well as intergenerational dissonance. This article focuses on the affective work required to mediate cumulative precarity with familial relationships, with an emphasis on the ways that participants arduously—yet artfully—weave between multiple temporal scales of experience within concentrated shared space in order to care for and communicate with their family members. Through synthesising geographical scholarship on generational experience, everyday experiences of policy and the spaces of precarious labour, this paper contributes to expanding economic geography's engagement with ongoing histories of coloniality in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper frames a critical evaluation of the progressive aspirations of localism partnerships by conceptualising them as informal associations. I show how the selective limitations and affordances of the Localism Act and its related policies necessitated and enabled direct, deliberative encounters, and pragmatic working between the Rural Urban Synthesis Society and its local authority, Lewisham Council. These practices allowed them to co‐produce a precedent for community‐led affordable housing development in London, as well as contribute to the growth of the sector. Informal associations are thus both means and end. They enable innovative articulations of localism and underpin a broader, ongoing project of progressive localism. They also form the conceptual basis for future research to delve more deeply and widely into analyses of localism partnerships and their relationalities to the institutions in which they are embedded. Within the vagarious and incoherent institutional landscape of austerity, informal associations invoke a local politics which embraces collaborative, direct experimentation between state agents and societal actors, working with uncertainty in planning to achieve progressive developmental and governance outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Imperial College School of Medicine, London UK, introduced a new curriculum in 2019, with a focus on the GMC outcomes for graduates, and pedagogy best practice. The new curriculum included formative assessments, named engagement and feedback assessments (EFAs), to support learning, and attainment in the summative examinations. The aims of this study were to assess the validity of EFAs and to determine whether they have utility as a modified form of programmatic assessment to inform decision-making regarding possible interventions by measuring and analysing attendance at and performance in these formative events. Methods: Seven hundred and sixty-one students were included in the study and assessment results were included for academic years 2019/20 to 2020/21. Forty-one data points per student, (27 in Year 1 and 14 in Year 2) were used, to compare EFA scores with the summative performance. Attendance was monitored through engagement with the EFAs. Results: Cohort 1 (enrolled 2019): In year 1, EFAs were associated with summative exam scores (overall r = 0.63, p < 0.001). Year 2, EFA scores were also associated with summative scores (overall r = 0.57, p < 0.001), including the clinical practical assessment (r = 0.45, p < 0.001). Missing two or more EFAs was associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of failing one or more summative examinations in the first year (OR: 7.97, 95% CI 2.65–34.39) and second year (OR: 3.20, 95% CI 1.74–5.95). Missing more than two EFAs in their first year was also associated with a higher risk of failing a summative examination in the second year (OR: 2.47, 95% CI 1.33–4.71). Students who increased their attendance between year 1 and 2 fared better in summative assessment than those who maintained poor attendance, whereas those that reduced their attendance fared worse than those that maintained high attendance. Cohort 2 (enrolled 2020): Analysis of cohort 2 supported these findings and in this cohort missing two or more EFAs was again associated with an increased likelihood of failing a summative examination (OR = 4.00, 95% CI = 2.02–7.90). Conclusion: Our EFA model has validity in predicting performance in summative assessments and can inform prospective interventions to support students' learning. Enhancing attendance and engagement can improve outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates Roman writing habits through the evidence of metal styli. An assemblage of more than 400 styli from London constitutes the basis of the analysis, which explores their similarities with examples from other sites in Britain and continental Europe during the Imperial period. The geographical and social distribution of styli suggests that certain types were employed or made in specific locations by different social actors, and that the major political and military centres of the Empire shared a common material culture of writing. The analysis also suggests that styli types of the northern European regions possibly developed from 'military styli' brought by soldiers and bureaucrats during the conquest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tracks how a trope of middle-class household thrift, grounded on the autarchic Aristotelian oikos, has long fueled derogatory discourses in Britain aimed at low-income urban residents who practice quite different forms of thrift. Since the 1970s this trope has migrated across scales, proving a potent metaphor for national economic policy and planetary care alike, and morally and economically justifying both neoliberal welfare retraction compounded by austerity policies and national responses to excessive resource extraction and waste production. Both austerity and formal recycling schemes shift responsibility onto consumer citizens, regardless of capacity. Further, this model of thrift eclipses the thriftiness of low-income urban households, which emerges at the nexus of kin and waged labor, sharing, welfare, debt, conserving material resources through remaking and repair and, crucially, the fundamental need for decency expressed through kin care. Through a historicized ethnography of a London social housing estate and its residents, this paper excavates what happens as these different forms and scales of household thrift coexist, change over time, and clash. Ultimately, neoliberal policy centered on an inimical idiom of thrift delegitimizes and disentitles low-income urban households and undermines their ability to enact livelihood practices of sustainability and projects of dignity across generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant entrepreneurship is recognized as an essential economic driver for host and home countries. However, Eastern European entrepreneurs' social initiatives and contributions are rarely acknowledged, shadowed by their image of precarity and economic survival in host countries. This Interpretative Phenomenological Study (IPA) challenges this paucity by investigating how 18 London-based Romanian migrant entrepreneurs interviewed (LRMEs) enable transformational entrepreneurial practices transcending their "individual subsistence to create jobs and income for others" (Schoar, 2010, p.5) and contributing positively to Britain's social fiber. Specifically, this interdisciplinary study draws on Berry's acculturation model (1997, 2003, 2005) and social learning and self-efficacy theories (Bandura, 1971, 1977). This article contributes to the nascent transformational entrepreneurship scholarship and practice (TE) and policy. Specifically, it demonstrates how these Romanian migrant entrepreneurs enable acculturative belonging for themselves and other stakeholders as they enact through their everyday transformational entrepreneurship practices of role modelling, encouraging other migrants to pursue a socialeconomic entrepreneurial path and acculturative mentoring, supporting them to become custodians of bicultural values and customs, empowered to address social injustice and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Researchers conducting cohort studies may wish to investigate the effect of episodes of COVID-19 illness on participants. A definitive diagnosis of COVID-19 is not always available, so studies have to rely on proxy indicators. This paper seeks to contribute evidence that may assist the use and interpretation of these COVID-indicators.Methods: We described five potential COVID-indicators: self-reported core symptoms, a symptom algorithm; self-reported suspicion of COVID-19; self-reported external results; and home antibody testing based on a 'lateral flow' antibody (IgG/IgM) test cassette. Included were staff and postgraduate research students at a large London university who volunteered for the study and were living in the UK in June 2020. Excluded were those who did not return a valid antibody test result. We provide descriptive statistics of prevalence and overlap of the five indicators.Results: Core symptoms were the most common COVID-indicator (770/1882 participants positive, 41%), followed by suspicion of COVID-19 (n = 509/1882, 27%), a positive symptom algorithm (n = 298/1882, 16%), study antibody lateral flow positive (n = 124/1882, 7%) and a positive external test result (n = 39/1882, 2%), thus a 20-fold difference between least and most common. Meeting any one indicator increased the likelihood of all others, with concordance between 65 and 94%. Report of a low suspicion of having had COVID-19 predicted a negative antibody test in 98%, but positive suspicion predicted a positive antibody test in only 20%. Those who reported previous external antibody tests were more likely to have received a positive result from the external test (24%) than the study test (15%).Conclusions: Our results support the use of proxy indicators of past COVID-19, with the caveat that none is perfect. Differences from previous antibody studies, most significantly in lower proportions of participants positive for antibodies, may be partly due to a decline in antibody detection over time. Subsequent to our study, vaccination may have further complicated the interpretation of COVID-indicators, only strengthening the need to critically evaluate what criteria should be used to define COVID-19 cases when designing studies and interpreting study results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annual Review of the Faculty of Philosophy / Godisnjak Filozofskog Fakulteta is the property of Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the politics of diversity planning in one of Europe’s most socially and economically divided and globally oriented cities: London. The analysis draws on Latour’s writings on modes of politicisation to examine the processes and practices that shape contemporary urban governance. It uses the example of diversity planning to examine the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of urban politics. It shows that on the one hand diversity is represented in pragmatic, consensual and celebratory terms. Under prevailing conditions of contemporary global capitalism, the ‘what’ of diversity has been politicised into an agenda for labour market-building and the attraction of ‘talented’ individuals and foreign investment. However, at the same time this celebratory rhetoric represents part of a wider effort to deflect political attention away from the socially and economically divisive impacts of global models of economic growth and physical development. There is little discussion of the ways in which planning frameworks, the ‘how’ of diversity policy, are helping to generate new separations in and beyond the city. Moreover, despite claiming that policy is pragmatic and non-ideological, the paper shows how diversity narratives have become an integral part of broader political projects to orientate the city’s economy towards the needs of a relatively small cluster of powerful economic sectors. The paper concludes with reflections on the recent impacts of the vote for Brexit and the election of an openly Muslim London Mayor. It also assesses the broader relevance of a Latourian framework for the analysis of contemporary urban politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to compare immigrant community's business start‐up experiences in ethnic enclaves of London (UK) and Dubai (UAE). The primary data were collected through 20 in‐depth semi‐structured interviews (10 from each country) identified through personal contact networks and snowball sampling approaches in each country. The data were collected from November 2020 to March 2021 and analyzed using the template analysis approach. The findings reveal positive and ambitious business start‐up motivations and experiences among a psychologically "transient" migrant community in the UAE, despite starting their business under stricter business start‐up regulations in comparison with the UK sample where adverse motivations for business start‐up were reported with negative business start‐up experiences among a "naturalized" migrant community with comparatively liberal business start‐up regulations. This study contributes to the empirical cross‐national studies in immigrant entrepreneurship and provides impetus to the mixed embeddedness model while also reviving the seminal works of Phizacklea and Ram as a continuation of a stagnant discourse on cross‐national ethnic entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agent-based modelling (ABM) is a facet of wider Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) research that explores the collective behaviour of individual 'agents', and the implications that their behaviour and interactions have for wider systemic behaviour. The method has been shown to hold considerable value in exploring and understanding human societies, but is still largely confined to use in academia. This is particularly evident in the field of Urban Analytics; one that is characterised by the use of new forms of data in combination with computational approaches to gain insight into urban processes. In Urban Analytics, ABM is gaining popularity as a valuable method for understanding the low-level interactions that ultimately drive cities, but as yet is rarely used by stakeholders (planners, governments, etc.) to address real policy problems. This paper presents the state-of-the-art in the application of ABM at the interface of MAS and Urban Analytics by a group of ABM researchers who are affiliated with the Urban Analytics programme of the Alan Turing Institute in London (UK). It addresses issues around modelling behaviour, the use of new forms of data, the calibration of models under high uncertainty, real-time modelling, the use of AI techniques, large-scale models, and the implications for modelling policy. The discussion also contextualises current research in wider debates around Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, and MAS more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Anthropologist is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since 1997, over 50,000 homes have been demolished to allow for the "renewal" of council estates in London. This has involved the "decanting" of short and long-term tenants, as well as those leaseholders who bought their homes under "right to buy" legislation. Often described as "social cleansing", the racialized dimensions of these displacements remain under-explored despite asizable literature documenting the connections between race, place and state-subsidized housing in Britain. Drawing on interviews with Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic estate residents– including many active in housing movements– this paper shows that this displacement is understood in relation to histories of racial discrimination, the destruction of ethno-cultural infrastructures, and long-standing racialized inequalities. These themes resonate with apolitics of resistance grounded in aracialized class consciousness that seeks to intervene more broadly in the politics of capital and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, driving strategy optimization for a track is proposed for an energy efficient battery electric vehicle dedicated to the Shell Eco-marathon. A measurement-based mathematical vehicle model was developed to simulate the behavior of the vehicle. The model contains complicated elements such as the vehicle's cornering resistance and the efficiency field of the entire powertrain. The validation of the model was presented by using the collected telemetry data from the 2019 Shell Eco-marathon competition in London (UK). The evaluation of applicable powertrains was carried out before the driving strategy optimization. The optimal acceleration curve for each investigated powertrain was defined. Using the proper powertrain is a crucial part of energy efficiency, as the drive has the most significant energy demand among all components. Two tracks with different characteristics were analyzed to show the efficiency of the proposed optimization method. The optimization results are compared to the reference method from the literature. The results of this study provide an applicable vehicle modelling methodology with efficient optimization framework, which demonstrates 5.5% improvement in energy consumption compared to the reference optimization theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes an assemblage approach to extend knowledge and understanding of widening participation (WP) in the United Kingdom. We reflect on the identification and experiences of a WP student population—how this population has been marked out, labelled, and considered through policy and intervention, alongside the materialities and mobilities that shape the lived experiences of these students. Using questionnaire findings, narrative interviews, and photo diaries, it draws on a 12‐month study at a London university to explore the factors that have enabled final‐year undergraduate students from a WP background to stay the course and complete their programme of studies. Our arguments are shaped by the geographical and educational literatures on materialities and mobilities. We bring these together to sketch out a student success assemblage comprising wide‐ranging elements that we frame around identity, support, and resources. Assemblage draws attention to the multiplicity of human/non‐human relations that shape student experience and students' capacities for success. Assemblage intersects with university precisely through a focus on experience and, as we suggest, takes on a particular inflexion for students from a WP background. This underpinning ontological basis to studying WP enables us to view the university, student experience, and success as being continually produced and reproduced, and coconstituted between the human and non‐human. Universities should attend to student assemblages to better understand the experiences of and support needed by underrepresented groups in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the appearance of cyberloafing at work, that is, the use of the company's internet connection for personal purposes, may be due to a workplace that lacks mindfulness and compassion. The authors first hypothesize that supervisors' mindfulness is related to the mindfulness of their direct followers, and that both are related to employees' compassion at work. The authors also hypothesize that compassion mediates the link between supervisors' and followers' mindfulness and cyberloafing, and that empathic concern mediates the link from compassion to cyberloafing. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was distributed to followers working in groups of three with the same leader in all of the 100 banks in London (UK). Supervisors and their direct reports (n=100) and 100 triads of followers (n=300) participated. The authors applied structural equation modeling (SEM) for analyses. Findings: Results showed that supervisors' and followers' mindfulness were significantly related to each other and to compassion at work, but compassion acted as a mediator only in the case of supervisors' mindfulness. Empathic concern mediated the compassion-cyberloafing link. Research limitations/implications: The study could suffer from mono-method/source bias and specificities of banks and their work processes can raise concerns about the generalizability of the results. Practical implications: Findings suggest that mindfulness training may facilitate compassion at work, which, in turn, will restrain the occurrence of cyberloafing at work. Originality/value: This is the first study to analyze how and why employees refrain from harming their organizations out of compassion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the idea of "place‐based diversity" to examine the nature of undergraduate Geography students' attainment and progression with a specific focus on gender, ethnicity and socio‐economic status. In addressing the empirical neglect of progression when assessing inequalities in achievements among Geography students in general and the specific lack of research at the departmental level, the paper contributes to debates on challenging intersectional exclusion within the discipline at a university in London. While it shows that undergraduate Geography no longer privileges male, middle‐class students in terms of attainment, those from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds perform less well. While this is partly addressed by encouraging patterns of higher progression rates among BME students, much more needs to be done. Contributing to existing Bourdieusian analyses of student experiences as well as the role of the university in society, this requires exploration of students' identities and agency, especially their "dutiful aspirational capital," together with the "institutional habitus" of departments and universities and where they are situated geographically. While departmental support mechanisms have helped in facilitating progression for the disadvantaged, this must be combined with developing more positive diverse role models, curriculum change and targeted support practices that avoid the "black deficit model" which assumes that BME students are "lacking." This paper challenges assumptions about undergraduate geography students as white, male and middle‐class based on research within a department of Geography in the east of London in the United Kingdom (UK). In arguing that progression must be taken as seriously as attainment, it shows that while female undergraduates and those from less advantaged socio‐economic backgrounds are not necessarily hindered, ethnicity remains an issue. In explaining these patterns, the notion of "place‐based diversity" is useful in capturing the structures of institutions that are situating within specific localities and policy environments as well as the agency of departments to create conditions that are conducive to celebrating diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing an evolutionary perspective towards the changing anatomy of the banking sector reveals the enduring tensions and contradictions between spatial centralisation and the possibilities for decentralisation before, during and after the British banking crisis. The shift from banking boom to crisis in 2007 is conceptualised as a significant and on-going moment in the long-term evolution of the historical institutional–spatial dominance of London over other city-regions in Britain. The analysis demonstrates the importance of the institutional and geographical legacies of the British national political economy and variegation of capitalism established in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in shaping contemporary geographical outcomes. Regulatory changes combined with financial innovation in the latter years of the twentieth century to create an opportunity for English regional and Scottish banks excluded from previous institutional–spatial centralisation to expand excessively and consequently several failed in the banking crisis. The paper considers the future trajectory of institutional–spatial centralisation in the banking sector amidst the continued spatial restructuring of the banking crisis, involving a re-drawing of organisational boundaries, overlapping institutional and technological changes and unprecedented uncertainty about the impact of Brexit on Britain's wider political and economic landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed in order to improve the accuracy of traditional clustering approaches with applications in analyzing real-time patient attendance data from an accident & emergency (A&E) department in a local U.K. hospital. In the proposed randomly occurring distributedly delayed PSO (RODDPSO) algorithm, the evolutionary state is determined by evaluating the evolutionary factor in each iteration, based on whether the velocity updating model switches from one mode to another. With the purpose of reducing the possibility of getting trapped in the local optima and also expanding the search space, randomly occurring time-delays that reflect the history of previous personal best and global best particles are introduced in the velocity updating model in a distributed manner. Eight well-known benchmark functions are employed to evaluate the proposed RODDPSO algorithm which is shown via extensive comparisons to outperform some currently popular PSO algorithms. To further illustrate the application potential, the RODDPSO algorithm is successfully exploited in the patient clustering problem for data analysis with respect to a local A&E department in West London. Experiment results demonstrate that the RODDPSO-based clustering method is superior over two other well-known clustering algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With analysis occurring during a heightened concern with the Black Lives Matter movement and knife crime in the U.K., this paper aims to delineate the characteristics of a street code, constituting a specific dominant and often hegemonic form of 'street masculinity' found on an inner-city housing estate in London called Maxwell. The fieldwork ran over nine months in 2019, involving 48 Black, Asian, and minority ethnic men aged 18–22. Using an ethnographic methodology, the principal methods of data generation were observations, interviews and informal conversations. The main theories this study draws on to understand 'street masculinity' were Connell's and Messerschmidt's dominant, hegemonic, subordinate and complicit masculinity forms. Findings centre on data from two young men who exemplify different patterns of masculinity performing the street code. Findings are presented under a series of characteristics that make up the game of the 'on-road' street masculinity and include (1) authenticity, 'swagger' and not being 'pussy'; (2) a preparedness for violence; (3) knife-carrying; (4) a presence on the digital street. Although this way of living drove a desire for respect and group status, there was also an underlying and pervasive sense of vulnerability derived from risk-taking and anticipation of danger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Carta Internacional is the property of Associacao Brasileira de Relacoes Internacionais and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)