Fostering Belonging Through Compassionate Care in Education

Educationalists have a long history of supporting children and young people who have experienced challenges in their lives. However, with ever-increasing societal changes, many are rethinking their approaches to the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils. Some have responded by focusing more on compassionate leadership and nurturing and trauma-informed approaches. The chapter provides an overview of some of the contemporary issues impacting the health and wellbeing of children and young people, including how the global pandemic of Covid-19 has facilitated new understanding. There will be a focus on how experiences of trauma, abuse and adversity can affect development and behaviour. The terms and intervention methods currently in vogue will be considered. There will be a focus on the importance of compassionate leadership that facilitates a whole setting response and the importance of self-care

The risks of a tourism caught in Clausewitz's fog of war

The Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz (and his theories on war) does not take a vacation! Yet, I am about to establish here a daring connection between Clausewitz’s theories and tourism as the starting point for my argument. This chapter brings together reflections from various areas of knowledge to identify one of the risks that I see as very much looming over the practice of tourism: that of political instrumentalisation in the international arena, especially in the presence of tense geopolitical situations.Tourism, understood not only as physical movement but also as a social phenomenon, reflects and amplifies the political, economic, and cultural dynamics of the contemporary world. The free movement of people and the very perception of certain areas/ destinations often have to contend with international politics, propaganda, and the effects of what Carl von Clausewitz (and here’s where the Prussian general comes into play) defined as the “fog of war”, that is, the uncertainty that characterises conflict situations and decisions in wartime.The concept of the “fog of war” comes from military studies, indeed, and refers to the uncertainty and disorientation that accompany military operations. I’d like to extend this notion to describe the political and social dynamics that willingly or unwillingly affect tourism in times of conflicts. Propaganda, political strategies, and international relations generate a “fog” that can distort the perception of the safety and accessibility of tourist destinations, and thus directly influence the ability of tourism to actually be a vehicle for intercultural dialogue and global understanding.The awareness about this dynamic is fundamental to the debate on the role of tour- ism in promoting peace or, conversely, in perpetuating conflicts. In this sense, for instance, when a Portuguese university asked me in 2020 to curate the contents for a new master’s programme on international tourism development, I deemed it appropriate to introduce, on an experimental basis, a module on “geopolitics and tourism”(where I also made sure to clarify the difference between “geopolitics and tourism”and “geopolitics of tourism”).The political use of tourism can have very complex and potentially harmful consequences, not only for the destinations involved, but also for the entire global tourism ecosystem, undermining tourism’s role as a tool for cultural exchange and mutual understanding. Despite the breadth of the implications, however, these dynamics do not seem to attract significant attention from the scientific community.In the following sections of this chapter, by summarising personal considerations and key academic insights about the political use of tourism, addressing how tour- ism intersects with diplomacy, national identity, economic development, geopolitical tensions, propaganda, and cultural exploitation, I will therefore briefly provide arguments and outline the reasons why, on the contrary, this issue should be added urgently to the research agenda of tourism scholars

Justice for Nature : a Rawlsian Approach

This chapter explores the evolving legal and philosophical concept of the Rights of Nature, focusing on its implications for environmental justice in England and Wales. Drawing on constitutional rights theory, environmental ethics, and Rawls’ Theory of Justice, it examines how nature can be recognized as a legal rights-holder, moving beyond traditional anthropocentric frameworks. The chapter traces the development of this idea from early Indigenous worldviews and key legal milestones, such as Ecuador's 2008 constitution, Bolivia's 2010 Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, and New Zealand’s legislation recognizing the rights of rivers. Proportionality is a central theme, as it is often used in human rights law to balance competing rights. The chapter demonstrates how proportionality can be adapted to resolve conflicts between human rights, corporate interests, and the Rights of Nature. It further explores how an amended Rawlsian framework – especially the concepts of the original position, veil of ignorance, and difference principle – can be applied to conflicts involving nature as a a rights holder. The application provides a fair framework for decision-making that prioritizes the most vulnerable stakeholders, including ecosystems and species.Through hypothetical case studies involving state development, corporate activities, and inter-ecosystem conflicts, the chapter illustrates the practical application of these principles in balancing human and ecological rights. It concludes by highlighting the need for legal systems to evolve and recognize nature’s rights as fundamental to ensuring justice and sustainability in the face of ongoing environmental challenges. With justice for nature denied, the world faces a perilous future.<br/

Negotiating Power Dynamics and Cultural Sensitivity: A Case Study on Conducting Elite Interviews in a Politically Fragile Context

This case study investigates the practical and methodological challenges associated with conducting interviews with high-ranking public figures (“elites”) in politically fragile environments, with a particular focus on education and gender issues in Turkey. The original research utilised a qualitative methodology, emphasising an immersive, in-depth interview process. The study presents insights into accessing elite participants, understanding unique cultural nuances in securing informed consent, and reflecting on the methodological implications of context-specific interview protocols. Furthermore, it draws attention to the ethical concerns linked with conducting research in politically sensitive contexts. By engaging with this case study, readers will gain nuanced knowledge of qualitative research techniques in similar challenging settings. They will further learn how to adapt and apply these insights to their research, enhancing their capacity to negotiate ethical, practical, and methodological complexities when interacting with elites in volatile socio-political climates

A ‘community in the county’? Sir John Sandys and social mobility in later medieval Hampshire.

A study of the remarkable rise of John Sandys, knight-adventurer, Hampshire landed gentry and the significance of heiresses. The paper was read to the History department research seminar in October 2018 and is in press with Southern History

An exploratory study into cell approaches for intelligence collection from detainees within an English Police Custody Suite

The value of intelligence gathered from cell approaches in police custody suites remains largely unexplored, presenting a crucial area for research. This study explores the collection of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) and the generation of Source (Covert Human Intelligence Source, CHIS) referrals during cell approaches. Data was collected from 102 cell approaches by which 54 were undertaken by dedicated intelligence officers and 48 by detectives in a police custody suite in England over a 3-month period. Results revealed that detectives, when tasked, were significantly more successful than dedicated intelligence officers in securing intelligence during cell approaches and to make source (CHIS) referrals. A detainee’s willingness to engage was associated with intelligence provision, with revenge and lifestyle as key motivating factors. Detainees were significantly more likely to provide intelligence post-charge rather than pre-charge, though the time of day and detainee age showed no significant correlations with intelligence gathering. This study discussed the importance of optimizing intelligence collection and source referrals during cell approaches

'Tarting up Ideas in Costume Jewellery': Contemporary Gothic Camp

Gothic has always been campy. Its penchant for melodrama, affinity with superficial expressions of extreme emotion, and preferred locales, set dress-ings and costumes all collude to craft a camp way of imagining the world. Susan Sontag argued this in 1964, noting that ‘the origins of Camp taste are to be found’ in eighteenth-century artefacts, with ‘Gothic novels’ being one of Sontag’s many examples. Subsequent criticism further indicates the tremendous tendency of Gothic and horror to be campy. For example, Jack Babuscio argues that horror cinema’s camp qualities emerge from the genre’s tendency to ‘make the most of stylish conventions for expressing instant feeling, thrills, sharply defined personality, outrageous and “unac-ceptable” sentiments, and so on’. Likewise, Gothic scholars obliquely suggest a contact point between Gothic and camp. Despite this, critical work on Gothic camp is scant. This critical lacuna is even more noticeable within Queer Gothic studies. Considering that the predominant approach that queer Gothicists take when analysing the mode involves a fixation on forms of queer representation and expressions of queer politics interpret-able within Gothic work, this gap is arguably understandable – camp is often perceived as light and frothy, and hence at odds with ‘serious’ crea-tive political endeavours. That said, camp criticism has staged numerous interventions that demonstrate its capacity as a tool for historical, cultural and political critique. For example, Fabio Cleto’s fantastic reader Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject (1999) and Moe Meyer’s edited collection The Politics and Poetics of Camp (1994) both expertly outline camp’s queer politics

Representing and Resisting Maternal Melancholy in Buchi Emecheta’s Second-class Citizen and The Joys of Motherhood

This chapter examines the representation of – and resistance to - maternal melancholy in two of Emecheta’s novels, Second-Class Citizen (1974) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979), which explore the lives of female characters as wives and mothers in (post)colonial Nigeria and as migrants in Britain. Combining postcolonial trauma theory (Craps 2013, Visser 2015, Atkinson 2017) and African-feminist theories of motherhood (Arndt, 2002, Oloruntoba-Oju and Oloruntoba-Oju 2013, Fongang 2015), I examine Emecheta’s depiction of her female characters’ experiences of and reactions to motherhood and its losses – including infant mortality, involuntary childlessness, and the loss of sustaining communal bonds. The novels demonstrate how dramatic socio-cultural shifts from colonialism to independence, from rural village life to urban dwelling, emigration from postcolony to metropolitan centre all impact women’s ability to negotiate and mitigate the challenges and losses of motherhood. I argue that Emecheta’s work evinces an affective and ideological ambivalence towards motherhood and that her characters’ ‘recovery’ from maternity-related traumas remains partial. There is, moreover, a persistence of negative emotional affect based on sex-based oppression across colonial, postcolonial and diasporic contexts, which is not fully mitigated by discourses of self-recovery, improvement and fulfilment, but which nevertheless contributes to the texts’ resistant and productive qualities

Measurement Models for Group-Peer Assessment of Project-Based Learning in Software Engineering

Over two decades we have been developing and testing alter-native frameworks for Group-Peer-Assessment (GPA) in software engineering education. The focus lies on skills as-sessed through observation of students’ behavior and/or ex-amination of the results of project assignments. Assessment for such instructional types is not covered satisfactorily by traditional approaches. Assessment at the group as well as individual level must be able to cope with multiple quality criteria on scales of various types, and multiple assessors responsible for assessing distinct quality aspects. We offer two-parameter scoring models for GPA, by which individual student scores are derived from a group score and mutual peer ratings. The two parameters are: (1) a constraint on the spread of student scores and (2) the relative impact of peer ratings. GPA imposes no artificial restrictions on group size, type or number of quality criteria, or other context-specific aspects of GPA. We briefly describe our experience with GPA for software engineering courses at a university in the U

Justice for Nature : a Rawlsian Approach

This chapter explores the evolving legal and philosophical concept of the Rights of Nature, focusing on its implications for environmental justice in England and Wales. Drawing on constitutional rights theory, environmental ethics, and Rawls’ Theory of Justice, it examines how nature can be recognized as a legal rights-holder, moving beyond traditional anthropocentric frameworks. The chapter traces the development of this idea from early Indigenous worldviews and key legal milestones, such as Ecuador's 2008 constitution, Bolivia's 2010 Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, and New Zealand’s legislation recognizing the rights of rivers. Proportionality is a central theme, as it is often used in human rights law to balance competing rights. The chapter demonstrates how proportionality can be adapted to resolve conflicts between human rights, corporate interests, and the Rights of Nature. It further explores how an amended Rawlsian framework – especially the concepts of the original position, veil of ignorance, and difference principle – can be applied to conflicts involving nature as a a rights holder. The application provides a fair framework for decision-making that prioritizes the most vulnerable stakeholders, including ecosystems and species.Through hypothetical case studies involving state development, corporate activities, and inter-ecosystem conflicts, the chapter illustrates the practical application of these principles in balancing human and ecological rights. It concludes by highlighting the need for legal systems to evolve and recognize nature’s rights as fundamental to ensuring justice and sustainability in the face of ongoing environmental challenges. With justice for nature denied, the world faces a perilous future.<br/