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This article provides an introduction to this special section of James Baldwin Review 7 devoted to Baldwin and film. Jackson considers Baldwin’s distinct approach to film criticism by pairing him with James Agee, another writer who wrote fiction as well as nonfiction in several genres, and who produced a large body of film criticism, especially during the 1940s. While Agee, a white southerner born almost a generation before Baldwin, might seem an unlikely figure to place alongside Baldwin, the two shared a great deal in terms of temperament and vision, and their film writings reveal a great deal of consensus in their diagnoses of American pathologies. Another important context for Baldwin’s complex relationship to film is television, which became a dominant media form during the 1950s and exerted a great influence upon both the mainstream reception of the civil rights movement and Baldwin’s reception as a public intellectual from the early 1960s to the end of his life. Finally, the introduction briefly discusses the articles that constitute this special section.

Religious Education as a Dialog with Difference summarizes Kevin O’Grady’s outstanding work in the field of religious education. My first conversation with him was at a conference, in which O’Grady...

Knowledge-based breeding to develop high-yielding wheat cultivars is the key to keep pace with increasing food demand, not only in optimal but also in stressed conditions. Resilience to climate extremes and variability has become one of the most important crop breeding targets. Genomics will play an important role to uncover the basis of adaptability to heat, drought, salinity and other abiotic stresses, and disease resistances in wheat. Deeper understanding of the physiological and genetic bases of drought and heat resistance is crucial for maintaining and improving breeding program efficiency. The high-quality wheat reference genome sequence is recently decoded and new genotyping tools are being developed based on the most updated genomics information to be used in practical breeding programs. In this chapter, we focused on the (i) quantitative trait loci (QTLs) analysis related to drought, heat, salinity tolerance, and diseases resistance in wheat, (ii) functional genes discovered for important breeding traits and development of markers for use in breeding, (iii) role of wheat genetic resources to enhance the genetic diversity and expansion of alleles for important genes, (iv) improved genotyping and phenotyping approaches to understand the genetic basis of wheat production traits, and (iv) future strategies to accelerate the rate of genetic gain in a changing climate.

The view is taken that, on the basis of human rights principles, publicly-funded schools in democratic societies should provide all students with knowledge and understanding of religious and world view diversity, considered as both intrinsically and instrumentally worthwhile. An account is given of the Council of Europe’s work in this field, culminating in a Ministerial recommendation to the 47 member states on teaching about religions and non-religious convictions, and in the publication of the book Signposts: Policy and Practice for Teaching about Religions and Non-Religious Worldviews in Intercultural Education. Signposts draws on classroom-based research in order to assist practitioners in addressing issues such as: identifying elements of competence for understanding religions; how to make the classroom a safe space for student dialogue about religions and beliefs; how to integrate a study of non-religious worldviews with the study of religions; and how to link schools to wider communities, with the goal of increasing students’ knowledge and understanding of religions and philosophies.

Throughout my career as a teacher of religious education, teacher trainer and researcher I have also worked as a jazz musician. It was only when I was asked to write a piece for a collection of aut...

Introduction: There are dozens of drugs in development for AD with billions of dollars invested. Despite the massive investment in AD drugs and a burgeoning pipeline, there have been more setbacks and failures than treatment successes.Areas covered: The classes of drugs that have failed to date include the monoclonal antibodies, the gamma secretase inhibitors, dimebon, neurochemical enhancers, and one tau drug. Data for these compounds were sought through a PubMed search and a clinicaltrials.gov search.Expert opinion: The obvious question to be posed is: Why are they failing? Is the treatment of symptomatic dementia too late? Are the therapeutic targets incorrect? Are the clinical methodologies imprecise, misleading, or inaccurate? This review summarizes the drugs that have failed during 2010–2015 and offers possible theories as to why they have failed.

The article draws on experience of teaching, teacher education and qualitative research related to an impartial approach to inclusive religious education (including pupils from families who identify with or do not identify with religion or belief groups), in publicly funded schools in England. Such religious education is considered to be intrinsically worthwhile and instrumentally important in contributing to pupils’ personal and social development. The approach considered is hermeneutical, bringing reliable information into relationship with knowledge and experience of pupils and teacher through active learning, including dialogue. Qualitative research on student and early career teachers suggests that appropriate skills and attitudes supporting an impartial approach can be developed, facilitating a relationship of trust between teacher and students. A condition is the development of teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the stances of pupils in their classes. However, some student teachers or teachers with very firmly held views find it very difficult to adopt an impartial approach. On the basis of examples from qualitative research, it is argued that good quality teacher education can assist in developing appropriate skills and attitudes for those wishing to take an impartial approach. Further research, ideally involving partnership between researchers and practitioners, is recommended.\ud

This article outlines some issues in incorporating the study of religions, together with non-religious world views, into the curricula of publicly funded schools in Western democratic states. Attention is given to examples from work on this topic conducted within the Council of Europe since 2002, with a particular focus on Signposts: Policy and Practice for Teaching about Religions and Nonreligious World Views in Intercultural Education, a text published by the Council of Europe in 2014. Signposts is designed to assist policy makers and practitioners in interpreting and applying ideas from the 2008 Recommendation from the Committee of Ministers (the Foreign Ministers of the 47 member states) dealing with education about religions and non-religious convictions. Various issues raised by the Signposts document are considered. Towards the end of the article, recent UK and Council of Europe policies which emphasise the study of religions and beliefs as a means to counter extremism, and which have appeared since the publication of Signposts, are summarised and discussed critically. Attention is drawn to the dangers of certain policies, and also to the plurality of aims which studies of religions and non-religious world views need to have in providing a balanced educational programme.

A much smaller number of voluntary aided schools, with a religious character, were mainly funded by the state, but received some funding from religious bodies, and they were allowed to teach their own form of religious education. However, changes in the academic study of religion in universities and the increasing ethnic and religious diversity of urban areas were also influential. A key driver of change was secularisation, characterised by a decline in religious belief and practice within Western societies. A second influence for change is pluralisation, through the migration to European states of people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds. A third influence is globalisation, connecting aspects of life in particular countries with events in other parts of the world. There are various approaches to faith-based religious education, which might be placed in two broad categories, one seeing inclusive forms of religious education as a threat, the other seeing some forms of inclusive religious education as complementary to faith-based education.

This chapter discusses some more general implications for religious education practice and policy related to an interpretive and 'conversational' approach and includes criticisms of the type of interpretive approach. Some criticisms, such as the charge of relativism, have been directed at multi-faith religious education generally. Another point of criticism is the charge of reductionism. Engaging in 'conversation', that is in hermeneutics–which for Richard Rorty means trying to make connections between different world views–can lead to edification. The two ideas of 'edification' and 'learning from religion' are closely related, but there are some significant differences. Contemporary anthropologists are from many cultural and religious backgrounds, and yet share common professional standards, while participating in the debates which are the reflexivity of the subject. Similarly, teachers of religious education should be of any religious background or none. Different Christians are struck in different ways by religio-ethnic plurality.

The article considers human rights and their relevance to an impartial and inclusive form of religious and world views education. Such a form of education is justified because of its intrinsic worth as part of a liberal education, and its instrumental value to the personal development of students and to their social development as members of societies in which people need to live together, despite holding different religious and secular beliefs. It is argued that the human rights codes are especially relevant to the argument for inclusive religious education related to the social development of young people. The Council of Europe’s work in this field since 2002 is summarised, including its publication of Signposts (Jackson in Signposts: policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, http://www.theewc.org/Content/Library/COE-Steering-documents/Recommendations/Signposts-Policy-and-practice-for-teaching-about-religions-and-non-religious-world-views-in-intercultural-education , 2014). Its impartial (secular but not normatively secularist) approach sees the human rights codes as vital reference points for discussions about the limits of individual freedoms, including ‘freedom of religion or belief’, supports forms of ‘education about religions and beliefs’ which combine impartial study with opportunities for student dialogue and exchange, and regards such education as complementary to forms of faith nurture within families and communities.

This article responds to Liam Gearon’s reply to my article Misrepresenting Religious Education’s Past and Present in Looking Forward: Gearon Using Kuhn’s Concepts of Paradigm, Paradigm Shift and Incommensurability. In maintaining my critique of Gearon’s use of Kuhn’s terminology, I question his claim that ‘incommensurability’ does not necessarily imply ‘incompatibility’, and challenge his view that ‘faith-based’ approaches to religious education and ‘inclusive’ approaches are incommensurable and deeply incompatible. I also question Gearon’s placement of particular scholars within his constructed paradigms, noting that those identified by Gearon with specific paradigms do not necessarily share the same views concerning the nature of religious education and its pedagogy, and that various scholars, associated by Gearon with particular paradigms, draw on a variety of disciplines in their work. I argue that Gearon’s construction of paradigms is a device he uses for ‘separation’, leading to his misrepresentation of the work of researchers. I argue for the benefits of collaboration, in research, teaching and policy development. Finally, I give reasons for writing the article, which do not result from any engagement in ‘paradigm wars’, and I draw attention to pressing issues relating to the future of ‘inclusive’ religious education which are not addressed by Gearon.\ud \ud

Personal rule has been a compelling facet of politics at least since the time of Machiavelli. It is the image not of a ruler but of a type of rulership.' Personal rule is a dynamic world of political will and activity that is shaped less by institutions or impersonal social forces than by personal authorities and power; it is a world, therefore, of uncertainty, suspicion, rumor, agitation, intrigue, and sometimes fear, as well as of stratagem, diplomacy, conspiracy, dependency, reward, and threat. In other words, personal rule is a distinctive type of political system in which the rivalries and struggles of powerful and wilful men, rather than impersonal institutions, ideologies, public policies, or class interests, are fundamental in shaping political life. Indicators of personal regimes in sub-Saharan Africa are coups, plots, factionalism, purges, rehabilitations, clientelism, corruption, succession maneuvers, and similar activities which have been significant and recurring features of political life during the past two decades. Furthermore, there is no indication that such activities are about to decline in political importance. Whereas these features are usually seen as merely the defects of an otherwise established political orderwhether capitalist, socialist, military, civilian, or whatever-we are inclined to regard them much more as the integral elements of a distinctive political system to which we have given the term "personal rule."2 It is ironic that in the twentieth century a novel form of "presidential monarchy" has appeared in many countries of the Third World. The irony consists in the contradiction of what is perhaps the major tendency in the evolution of the modern state during the past several centuries: the transformation of political legitimacy from the authority of kings to the mandate of the people.3 What has happened in the

This article examined the relationship between neighborhood built environment and pedestrian behaviors in the rural US South, a setting that has rarely been the focus of previous pedestrian behavior research. It used surveys administered to six neighborhoods in Starkville, Mississippi, a rural/small-town in the South, with a 38.5 per cent response rate and a total of 362 household participants. The study compared walking behavior between traditional neighborhoods built before WWII, early conventional suburban neighborhoods built around the 1970s and late conventional suburban neighborhoods built around the 1990s. The results indicated that aesthetics is the most important perceived neighborhood characteristic that encourages walking, but social environment as a perceived walking barrier discourages walking. Nevertheless, residents’ perceived neighborhood characteristics and neighborhood barriers, as well as their associations with walking differ across the three neighborhood types. This study provided insights into the neighborhood design features and their interplay with the social environment that affects walking in a rural/small-town context.

I consider Liam Gearon’s critique of what he calls the politicisation and\ud securitisation of religious education, focusing on his criticisms of a European research project, the REDCo project (Religion in Education: a Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries?) funded by the European\ud Commission Framework 6 Programme, and a European policy discussion document, the Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching about Religions in Public Schools, published by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation for Security and\ud Co-operation in Europe. I criticise Gearon’s representation of both projects, offering alternative accounts, and relating my comments to Gearon’s essentialist view of religious education. I give a critique of Gearon’s view that initiation into ‘the religious life’ is the only\ud legitimate form of religious education. I conclude that, although educators should always be wary of being manipulated by politicians and others, support for research and/or development concerning studies of religions (or of religions and non-religious worldviews) is\ud a legitimate concern for bodies such as the European Commission, and the OSCE/ODIHR, provided that participants are enabled to work freely and openly in the pursuit of scholarly enquiry and liberal educational goals.

Philip Barnes’ book Education, Religion and Diversity is a substantial and clearly presented discussion of various models of religious education that have appeared since the late 1960s in Britain, ...

At a time of global economic downturn, there is a temptation for healthcare organisations to focus on cost reduction rather than on quality improvement as a business strategy. However such a strategy can indeed be a dangerous one for patients, [1] with recommendations that the best strategy to advance cost savings is to improve the health status of patients through quality improvement [1–4].

This article, written from an insider perspective, and in a personal capacity (the author has been involved with the Council of Europe’s work on religion and education since its inception in 2002), gives an account of the developing interest in the study of religions (and latterly non-religious convictions) in publicly funded schools by the Council of Europe, one of several international institutions to have focused on the place of religions and beliefs in public education in recent years. Particular attention is given to the 2008 Recommendation from the Committee of Ministers (the Foreign Ministers of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe) on teaching about religions and non-religious convictions in schools, and to current work on its dissemination. In 2011, the Council of Europe and the European Wergeland Centre set up a joint committee to produce a document (Policy and Practice for Teaching about Religions and Non-Religious Worldviews in Intercultural Education) to assist policymakers, schools ...

Samenvatting In dit artikel wordt een schets geboden van de wetgeving en de beleidsdiscussies met betrekking tot de vormgeving van het godsdienst- en levensbeschouwelijk onderwijs in Engeland tot aan 2013. Vooraf wordt nog kort ingegaan op de vigerende systemen in Noord-Ierland, Schotland en Wales. Het duale Engelse systeem wordt uitgelegd met bekostiging van zowel openbare (‘community’) scholen als ook bepaalde denominationele scholen. Duidelijk wordt hoe het ontwerpen van curricula voor het godsdiensten levensbeschouwelijk onderwijs gaandeweg werd overgedragen aan lokale autoriteiten, waaraan de overheid op nationaal niveau steeds minder wettelijke eisen verbond. Secularisatie en pluriformisering van de samenleving blijken de belangrijkste stoot te hebben gegeven voor veranderde doelstellingen voor het godsdienst- en levensbeschouwelijk onderwijs en tot een verbreding van deelnemers aan de lokale vormgeving van het curriculum. Hierdoor kwamen ook meer religieuze en levensbeschouwelijke tradities aan bod. Overheidsbeleid is van grote invloed in dezen. De vorige Labourregering wilde inzetten op versterking van de cohesie in gemeenschappen en daar paste het genoemde beleid uitstekend bij. De huidige coalitieregering voert beleid dat andere vakken dan godsdienst/levensbeschouwing bevoorrecht, en de lokale overheden kunnen minder bijdragen aan het gezamenlijke curriculum. Daarnaast is de opleiding van specialistische leraren godsdienst/levensbeschouwing onder druk komen te staan.

Investigating the hitherto unexplored topic of how young people understand and relate to religious diversity in the social context in which they are growing up, this book makes a significant contribution to the existing body of literature on religious diversity and multiculturalism. It closes a gap in knowledge about young people’s attitudes to religious diversity, and reports data gathered across the whole of the UK as well as comparative chapters on Canada, USA and continental Europe. Reporting findings from both qualitative and quantitative research which reveal, for example, the importance of the particular social and geographical context within which young people are embedded, the volume addresses young people’s attitudes towards the range of ’world religions’ as well as non-religious stances and offers an interdisciplinary approach through the different analytical perspectives of the contributors.\ud

Although provision for dealing with religion(s) in the educational systems of different European countries continues to vary quite considerably, there is increasing European collaboration on this topic in European organisations, such as the Council of Europe, the European Wergeland Centre and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe; in professional associations, such as the European Forum for Teachers of Religious Education; and in research groups, including the European Network for Religious Education through Contextual Approaches, together with various international teams—such as the REDCo team—assembled to undertake particular research projects. Academic journals with a European and wider brief also play their part in fostering European collaboration, discussion and exchange, as does the book series Religious Diversity and Education in Europe, published in Germany by Waxmann, and the University of Vienna’s series of texts on religious education in Europe. The chapter argues that Europeanisation—part of a broader internationalisation—of debates and research about religious education is to be welcomed, despite the ambiguities of the term ‘religious education’. So far its outcomes have been very positive in opening up discussion about the rationale for the study of religions in public education (as with the Council of Europe’s work), building networks of communication for exchanging ideas on pedagogy and policy and for collaborative research, fostering new, outward looking, doctoral research, and extending the publication of research on various aspects of religion in education.

Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit researchers wrote a report on a large scale study for the UK Government's Department for Children, Schools and Families published in January on the internet. Twenty-nine researchers and reviewers were involved in this study, the first ever to focus on the use of materials used in religious education across England. In addition to reviews of numerous books, audio-visual materials, and websites by panels of specialist academics, faith group consultants, and professional experts, there were 20 case studies of different schools across England, including maintained and independent, primary and secondary, and faith-based and nonfaith-based schools, plus a quantitative survey of schools of all types.

This article is part of a forum on Gareth Evans' book, The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2008). The forum features contributions from Michael Barnett, Chris Brown and Robert Jackson, and it concludes with a response from Gareth Evans.

Is the modern states system in terminal decline? Are we witnessing a great transformation in that regard? Are the events of 9/11 indicative of that? Or is state sovereignty evolving, yet again, in response to scientific, technological, economic and social changes – as it has done throughout the post-medieval era of its existence? That latter line of argument is put forward in this essay.

This article reports on two values education programmes currently available for UK schools, which are associated with two Hindu-related organisations, the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University and the Sathya Sai Service Organisation, UK. Attention is paid to the development of the programmes, the educational context in which they seek to embed themselves and the reasons for their implementation in some schools in England. We describe how values are included in curriculum subjects and how the content of the two values programmes are conveyed in the classroom as part of pupils' spiritual and moral development.

How should we understand the international administration of war-torn territories? A couple of caveats are necessary at the outset. I shall not deal with practical issues involved in making international administrations effective or successful; that will be left to the experts. Nor can I deal with what might be termed the pragmata of such administrations--that is, the degree to which there is evidence of an ad hoc, case-by-case approach on the ground in war-torn countries. I suspect that the closer one gets the more particular each case becomes. I must leave that close scrutiny to others who are more intimately familiar with each case than I am. (1) Instead, I address the question from a broader perspective of international political theory. My concern is to render such international activity intelligible in terms of leading ideas of international society, by which I mean that I shall try to interpret it. (2) Interpretation involves construing an activity, elucidating it, hopefully explaining it, but at least reading it correctly and thus understanding its meaning in the historical context in which it takes place. (3) The key words of this special issue express important ideas that invite interpretation: international, administration, war-torn, and territories. What do these terms imply or intimate concerning the international activity under discussion? How does the thinking involved in this sort of international activity fit into our received thought on international society? Does it suggest any change in our post-1945 conception of international society? I focus my remarks on a basic issue: the business of acquiring, exercising, and relinquishing international authority over such places--that is, international engagement in war-torn countries. The postwar cases of Germany (4) and Bosnia and Herzegovina will be examined briefly. In short, I shall be surveying these cases in broad outline from a high altitude, from which some details will be overlooked, but I hope that the broad contours will be clear. I address three groups of connected questions: * What circumstances or conditions invite or provoke such an international administration? In what places can it justifiably be carried on? In other words, what should we understand by the expression war-torn territories? * How is the activity authorized? From where does its mandate emanate and by what acts? What is its purpose? How and when should it end? * What sort of activity is the international administration of war-torn territories? How should we characterize it? What are the implications for our understanding of contemporary international society and its normative framework? War-Torn Territories In the wording of this symposium, war-torn evidently characterizes a circumstance or condition that would qualify a territory as a candidate for international administration. (5) That makes the expression a vital element in attempting to interpret the activity. It is not an established term of art in international law and diplomacy. But it conveys an idea that can be useful for studying foreign involvement in certain territories, both at present and historically. A war-torn territory is not an unambiguous state of affairs. The conduct of foreign policy and diplomacy on such questions is not the equivalent of a textbook exercise in political science. There is no definition according to which the issue can be decided scientifically or objectively. It is the international society, particularly its leading member states, that determines what will be deemed a war-torn territory in any specific instance. The phrase may be used with regard to certain places with discernible or attributable characteristics, and its use may frame part or all of a justification of international involvement. It may enter the lexicon of expressions that are used to justify such international activities. So war-torn territories is not only a descriptive term but also a prescriptive term that is employed in connection with the contemplation and execution of international involvement. …

I give a brief account of the emergence in Britain in the late 1960s of a secular religious education (RE), utilizing material from the religions of the world, and refer to its role in multicultural education in the 1970s. Next, I summarize some developments in the history of the uneasy relationship between multicultural and antiracist education up to the early 1990s, when new critical approaches to multicultural education appeared, noting that the political climate in Britain under Conservative Governments prevented any positive influence from these on policy. Since the election of a Labour Government in 1997, two main factors have resulted in the restoration of some multicultural/intercultural education to the curriculum: The first is a response to social disruption nationally and globally. The second is the introduction of citizenship education in the curriculum of English and Welsh schools. In the case of social disruption, in relation to riots in England and to the events of 11 September 2001, in New...

The effects of affect, as measured by the dispositional traits of positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA), on risk perceptions and risk intentions were tested among 149 managers from a variety of industries and companies. A risk‐assessment instrument consisting of systematically varied business scenarios was used to measure managerial perceptions of the risk dimensions of uncertainty, gains/losses, framing and personal involvement. Findings suggest that positive affect (high PA) managers viewed risk‐related uncertainty and personal involvement more optimistically, but were not more willing to seek risk. Negative affect (high NA) decision makers perceived risk‐related gains more negatively and were also significantly more likely to avoid risk.

The debate about state funding for faith based schools in England and Wales has intensified recently in the light of a number of factors, including the events of 11 September 2001 in New York and Washington and their aftermath internationally, together with tensions related to religion more locally, typified by riots in the north of England in the summer of 2001. Supporters of state funded faith based schools advance a variety of arguments in their favour, including the view that they: provide a positive response to racism; promote justice and fairness for children, parents and religious communities; offer education of a high quality; and promote social cohesion and the integration of minority communities into the democratic life of the state. Opponents of such schools argue that they: limit the personal autonomy of pupils; erode social cohesion through separating young people of different religious and non‐religious backgrounds; impose on pupils a restricted view of their religion; use state finance to f...

Martin Wight was a founding member and one of the most influential thinkers of the 'English School' of International Relations. His thought on diplomacy is at the heart of his international theory. He portrays diplomacy as a defining activity of international relations; it marks the international sphere. His diplomatic thought is shaped by, more than anything else, a traditional Christian outlook that can be characterized as Augustian. Unless one comprehends that religious disposition of Martin Wight's thought one will not properly understand it.

The contribution of regional criticism to studies of American literature and culture has been held back in our time by the assumption that the region enforces a very limiting provincialism upon its communities and, thus, its literary products. Such an assumption has emerged, perhaps understandably, in a cultural context in which the question of what constitutes a more universally American identity dominates thought nearly to the point of obsession. And yet there is a persistent sense that the individual region in the United States remains, somehow, a crucial unit of culture. Considering this issue in the most general spatial and cultural senses, the critic W. H. New points out that the very question whether "authors can ever not be in space yields either absurd answers or openly political ones--political statements that constitute new definitions of the relation between spaces in a society" (14). Regarding literature in particular, New writes: Defining the significance that particular spaces have for us, we parenthetically define or at least hint at our preconceptions about the significance of statements that will emerge from those given spaces, locales, regions. The notion of region, that is, contains within it a hidden notion of total structure, and it is often the artifice and the emotional reality of this implied total structure that literature encodes. (14-15) This statement formulates the capacity of notions of region, the knowledge of specific geographic landscapes and their cultures, and the explicit and implicit significance in their eventual representative voices, to inform literary texts. What I will call a regional reading of any literary text, then, if it is to apprehend the region's "hidden notion" informing literature, will require an understanding of the region's intricacies, of the singularities of its moment and topology, and also, of course, of its emergence from and within a national context. The potential value of this method would seem to reside both in a literary exposition that reveals new meaning in the text and also, somewhat incidentally but not unimportantly, in a qualification of the strains of national criticism that have attempted to frame any previous understanding of the literature. In an American context, the national model of empire follows its own peculiar, profoundly complex set of relations within its national borders. And in this setting k seems that the region, either in seeking to reproduce the national model on a smaller scale or in fashioning itself in some other way, cannot avoid, at some point, a confrontation with that complexity, and the realization that America's tangled national history and culture constitute a great measure of its inheritance, for better or for worse. It may be instructive in this connection to note that even the region's attempt to claim some kind of authentic identity apart from the nation personifies exactly that paradoxically individualistic quality of the American national character. Perhaps attention to a specific literary product, and to its grounding in a particular American regional context, will make this kind of complexity clearer. And since a highly suspicious reactionary motive has often motivated the tendency to retreat from nation to region, it is probably safest to consider a literary text that has been universally acknowledged as an archetypally American model, as an undisputed and permanent member of the national literary canon, and as a work that transcends the presumably narrow provincial limits of the region and engages the presumably larger national themes and concerns. Perhaps no American book could be more exemplary under these criteria, or provide a better case study for this kind of regional reading, than Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain's novel, of course, is widely considered to be a definitively American literary text. And yet, if the arguments of New and others are to be taken seriously, if the region does indeed offer a particular and "appropriate" critical framework for studies of literature, a regional reading of Huckleberry Finn should be productive and valuable in the context of any understanding of the novel (New 13). …

The Business Energy Financing (BEF) program offered commercial businesses in Michigan affordable financing options and other incentives designed to support energy efficiency improvements. We worked through partnerships with Michigan utilities, lenders, building contractors, trade associations, and other community organizations to offer competitive interest rates and flexible financing terms to support energy efficiency projects that otherwise would not have happened. The BEF program targeted the retail food market, including restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, and wholesale food vendors, with the goal of achieving energy efficiency retrofits for 2 percent of the target market. We offered low interest rates, flexible payments, easy applications and approval processes, and access to other incentives and rebates. Through these efforts, we sought to help customers strive for energy savings retrofits that would save 20 percent or more on their energy use. This program helped Michigan businesses reduce costs by financing energy efficient lighting, heating and cooling systems, insulation, refrigeration, equipment upgrades, and more. Businesses completed the upgrades with the help of our authorized contractors, and, through our lending partners, we provided affordable financing options.

The philosopher and media theorist Wolfgang Sutzl asserts that (following Giorgio Agamben) security has become the guiding concept for contemporary politics. If, as Foucault famously suggested, the guiding concept for the distribution of power was discipline, governance, and order, Agamben states that the distribution of power has operated on an exceptional basis; the securing of disorder: ‘What used to be one among several decisive measures of public administration until the first half of the twentieth century, now becomes the sole criterion of political legitimation’.1 However, as Sutzl admits, this provokes an abstract assertion. After all, what does security actually secure? Does security actually do anything apart from be bothered by insecurity? This implies that it is insecurity which supports security, because, quoting Sutzl, it exists ‘without an outer boundary, it never encounters a place where it has completed its mission’.2

Multicultural education (of which ‘multifaith’ RE in England and Wales is sometimes regarded as a subset) was attacked by antiracists in Britain in the 1980s. Although it is arguable that not all of the criticisms were valid, the debate raises questions about the efficacy of religious education in countering racism. The paper argues that a lack of analysis of the concepts ‘religions’ and ‘cultures’ in British RE has led to a representation of religious traditions which essentialises them, playing down their internal diversity, and which assumes a ‘closed’ view of cultures. A more flexible approach is suggested, drawing on work in ethnography and other social science disciplines, which might better combine with antiracist stances than earlier approaches. The work of the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit is introduced briefly as an example of an attempt to address some of the above issues in terms of an integrated approach to theory, the study of religions in the community and the devel...

In Agreed Syllabuses and curriculum books unequivocal statements are made about the nature of God according to Sikh belief. These statements closely correspond to those which appear in English‐language Sikh publications. However British Sikh children's (and adults') use of the word ‘God’ often differs radically from these statements and needs to be understood in the broader context of Punjabi religious vocabulary and practice. A comparison of Sikh children's understanding and usage of ‘God’ with what appears in the RE curriculum points up important issues regarding the relationship between ethnographic fieldwork and RE. These are highlighted in the final section.

People with intellectual disability are a group who experience negative stereotyping and who often have major skill and reasoning deficits resulting from their disability. These characteristics make them vulnerable when coming into contact with the law, and there is evidence that they are over-represented in the criminal justice system. There are several explanations for this over-representation, with the perceptions and beliefs of criminal justice system personnel likely to be influential. A sample of Supreme Court Judges, District Court Judges and Magistrates was interviewed to examine their perceptions and beliefs in relation to explanations of over-representation, with the interviews followed up by a questionnaire. It was found that the members of the judiciary saw people with intellectual disability as having several characteristics which would disadvantage them when in contact with the law and they were supportive of measures to ameliorate the disadvantage.

Issues about the study of religion in public education are being discussed internationally as never before. The discussions include not only specialists in religion but also many outside the professional field of religious education – politicians, civil servants, NGOs and other groups within civil society as well as educators concerned with fields such as citizenship and intercultural education. This is partly due to the global attention given to religion as a result of the events of September 11, 2001 in the United States, their causes, on-going consequences and associated incidents that have affected people in many parts of the world. In Europe, it also relates to the challenge of transcultural diversities (Robins, 2006) and the growing climate of racism in some states (MacEwen, 1995), much of it directed against Muslims, exacerbated by 9/11 and its consequences (Modood, Triandafyllidou, & Zapata-Barrero, 2006).