Popular Music on Screen and the Road to Brexit

This article traces some of the political and cultural implications of the use of popular music and popular musicians in British films of the 1960s and 1970s, demonstrating different, and sometimes incompatible, facets of the British psyche in relation to identity, independence, nationalism, nostalgia, and exoticism. These divergent perspectives seem to have emerged and ruptured in the 2016 Brexit vote, but are in fact deep-rooted and central to the British circumstance. Using Adler-Nissen et al.’s concept of the performativity of Brexit, which works both as a promise of a different future and to establish a specific past, various interrelationships between culture, identity politics, stardom, and music can be determined. These are explored through three general typologies — ‘Discovering Europe’, ‘Defeating Europe’, and ‘Reappraising Home’ — in order to demonstrate that the decision to leave the EU in 2016 was not a flash in the pan, but rather a long and protracted journey reflecting conflicted notions of freedom and accountability

Studying the Demography of Sustainable Human Wellbeing: Empowered Life Years (ELY) as Sustainability Criterion

This paper presents the outline of a new project which was recently approved as an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). It will apply two distinctly demographic concepts to address questions that go far beyond demography. It will study the indicators of and the conditions for sustainable human wellbeing. The wellbeing indicators proposed here will be based on life table methods and the recently operationalized concept of Demographic Metabolism – modelling social change through the replacement of generations – will be used to get a quantitative analytical handle on the temporal dynamics of improving human wellbeing. The project will theoretically develop, empirically estimate, test and forecast indicators of human wellbeing that are based on life table methods and hence reflect the basic – but often overlooked fact – that being alive is a necessary prerequisite for enjoying any quality of life. But since mere survival is not sufficient as an ultimate goal for most people the person years lived at each age will be weighted with four different dimensions of empowerment: health, literacy, happiness and being out of poverty. These are four dimensions of an indicator tentatively called ELY (Empowered Life Years). ELY will also serve as the explanandum of a global level econometric estimation of the determinants of wellbeing considering human, manufactured and natural capitals as well as knowledge and institutions. The global level analysis is complemented by a set of strategically chosen in-depth systems-analytical case studies in Namibia/Western Cape, Nepal, Costa Rica and historical Finland modelling the population-development-environment (PDE) interactions including feed-backs e.g. from environmental degradation to wellbeing and taking the trends of ELY in different sub-populations as sustainability criteria. They will also include stake holder involvement and science-policy interactions. The paper also includes an appendix which introduces the theoretical foundations and empirical calculation methods of Happy Life Expectancy, one of the components of ELY

A New Grammar of Images: Werner Herzog and the Contemporary Philosophy of Cinema

In his central mission of working on “a new grammar of images,” the German film director Werner Herzog presents a challenge to the philosophy of cinema. Pairing Herzog’s work with Deleuzian film theory, I argue against the prevalent secondary literature that Herzog’s oeuvre engages with an anti-romantic and non-ironic material philosophy in order to provide ethical challenges to a contemporary, connected world. Specifically focusing on spatiotemporal formations derived from empirical science, I demonstrate that Herzog’s approach to cinema utilizes a four-tiered semiotic that is at its core not merely a film theory, but rather an entire material philosophy of nature with profound ethical and political implications

From Ethnocentrism to Transculturalism: A Film Studies Pedagogical Journey

 This study reviews the exploratory implementation of an ‘internationalising the curriculum’ policy in relation to a cultural studies unit within a Creative Industries Faculty at an Australian university. Charting certain pedagogical practices in the delivery of transnational film studies, this case study involves a critical, contextual examination of student feedback as well as current theories about transcultural curricula in general and film studies curricula in particular. The study shows that tertiary students can be provided with an extraordinarily rich range of differing, sometimes conflicting, but always engaging transcultural insights and understandings.  It is further argued that transnational competencies may be developed and enabled through the innovative realisation of a type of ‘border crossing’ pedagogical model, largely by foregrounding transcultural ‘affective’ issues around social justice

The Experience of Unemployment in Ireland: A Thematic Analysis

This paper reports on the results of 13 semi-structured focus groups carried out with unemployed respondents across Ireland in 2010. The purpose of the research is to examine the subjective experience of unemployment across a wide range of dimensions. 15 overarching themes emerged from a detailed thematic analysis of the texts of the interviews. The themes highlight a wide range of aversive psychological states associated with unemployment. The themes examine: perceptions of the economic boom; reactions to the recession; attitudes toward media coverage; gender differences in experiences of unemployment; financial worries relating to unemployment; perceptions of the position of young people; uncertainty about the future; lack of structure and routine associated with unemployment; health issues associated with unemployment; identity challenges; the social context of unemployment; issues surrounding reentering employment; attitudes toward social protection payments; social comparison effect and perceptions of training services. This paper concludes with a brief discussion of the psychological impact of unemployment.

Key Topics on End-of-Life Care for African Americans

Racial classifications of human populations are politically and socially determined. There is no biological or genetic basis for these racial classifications. Health behaviors may be influenced by culture and poverty. Disparities in health outcomes, sometimes resulting in higher mortality rates for African-Americans appear to influence end of life decision-making attitudes and behaviors. To improve the quality of end of life care in African-American communities, health care professionals must better understand and work to eliminate disparities in health care, increase their own skills, knowledge and confidence in palliative and hospice care, and improve awareness of the benefits and values of hospice and palliative care in their patients and families

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

Future-proofing the state: managing risks, responding to crises and building resilience

Summary: This book focuses on the challenges facing governments and communities in preparing for and responding to major crises — especially the hard to predict yet unavoidable natural disasters ranging from earthquakes and tsunamis to floods and bushfires, as well as pandemics and global economic crises. Future-proofing the state and our societies involves decision-makers developing&nbsp;capacities to learn from recent ‘disaster’ experiences in order to be better placed&nbsp;to anticipate and prepare for foreseeable challenges. To undertake such futureproofing&nbsp;means taking long-term (and often recurring) problems seriously, managing&nbsp;risks appropriately, investing in preparedness, prevention and mitigation, reducing&nbsp;future vulnerability, building resilience in communities and institutions, and cultivating&nbsp;astute leadership. In the past we have often heard calls for ‘better future-proofing’&nbsp;in the aftermath of disasters, but then neglected the imperatives of the message. Future-Proofing the State is organised around four key themes: how can we better&nbsp;predict and manage the future; how can we transform the short-term thinking&nbsp;shaped by our political cycles into more effective long-term planning; how can we&nbsp;build learning into our preparations for future policies and management; and how&nbsp;can we successfully build trust and community resilience to meet future challenges&nbsp;more adequately