1,186 research outputs found

    Climate Change and Critical Agrarian Studies

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    Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution — as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism — the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the institutionalised responses in agrarian settings, highlighting what exclusions and inclusions result. It explores how different people — in relation to class and other co-constituted axes of social difference such as gender, race, ethnicity, age and occupation — are affected by climate change, as well as the climate adaptation and mitigation responses being implemented in rural areas. The book in turn explores how climate change – and the responses to it - affect processes of social differentiation, trajectories of accumulation and in turn agrarian politics. Finally, the book examines what strategies are required to confront climate change, and the underlying political-economic dynamics that cause it, reflecting on what this means for agrarian struggles across the world. The 26 chapters in this volume explore how the relationship between capitalism and climate change plays out in the rural world and, in particular, the way agrarian struggles connect with the huge challenge of climate change. Through a huge variety of case studies alongside more conceptual chapters, the book makes the often-missing connection between climate change and critical agrarian studies. The book argues that making the connection between climate and agrarian justice is crucial

    A Critical Review Of Post-Secondary Education Writing During A 21st Century Education Revolution

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    Educational materials are effective instruments which provide information and report new discoveries uncovered by researchers in specific areas of academia. Higher education, like other education institutions, rely on instructional materials to inform its practice of educating adult learners. In post-secondary education, developmental English programs are tasked with meeting the needs of dynamic populations, thus there is a continuous need for research in this area to support its changing landscape. However, the majority of scholarly thought in this area centers on K-12 reading and writing. This paucity presents a phenomenon to the post-secondary community. This research study uses a qualitative content analysis to examine peer-reviewed journals from 2003-2017, developmental online websites, and a government issued document directed toward reforming post-secondary developmental education programs. These highly relevant sources aid educators in discovering informational support to apply best practices for student success. Developmental education serves the purpose of addressing literacy gaps for students transitioning to college-level work. The findings here illuminate the dearth of material offered to developmental educators. This study suggests the field of literacy research is fragmented and highlights an apparent blind spot in scholarly literature with regard to English writing instruction. This poses a quandary for post-secondary literacy researchers in the 21st century and establishes the necessity for the literacy research community to commit future scholarship toward equipping college educators teaching writing instruction to underprepared adult learners

    Secondary Students’ Career Development Phenomenarratives

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    Career education and guidance can support the development of secondary students as they aspire toward their life goals. This research explored the lived experiences of three young people through the creation of phenomenarratives. A narrative co-reflection process was developed as part of the students’ personalised career guidance planning. Findings indicated the importance of career education that supports personalised and holistic learning experiences to develop students’ self-awareness, work skills, networks and confidence in their future direction

    Mooring the global archive: a Japanese ship and its migrant histories

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    Martin Dusinberre follows the Yamashiro-maru steamship across Asian and Pacific waters in an innovative history of Japan's engagement with the outside world in the late-nineteenth century. His compelling in-depth analysis reconstructs the lives of some of the thousands of male and female migrants who left Japan for work in Hawai'i, Southeast Asia and Australia. These stories bring together transpacific historiographies of settler colonialism, labour history and resource extraction in new ways. Drawing on an unconventional and deeply material archive, from gravestones to government files, paintings to song, and from digitized records to the very earth itself, Dusinberre addresses key questions of method and authorial positionality in the writing of global history. This engaging investigation into archival practice asks, what is the global archive, where is it cited, and who are 'we' as we cite it? This title is also available as Open Access

    The Digital Transformation Roadmap

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    Machine learning in portfolio management

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    Financial markets are difficult learning environments. The data generation process is time-varying, returns exhibit heavy tails and signal-to-noise ratio tends to be low. These contribute to the challenge of applying sophisticated, high capacity learning models in financial markets. Driven by recent advances of deep learning in other fields, we focus on applying deep learning in a portfolio management context. This thesis contains three distinct but related contributions to literature. First, we consider the problem of neural network training in a time-varying context. This results in a neural network that can adapt to a data generation process that changes over time. Second, we consider the problem of learning in noisy environments. We propose to regularise the neural network using a supervised autoencoder and show that this improves the generalisation performance of the neural network. Third, we consider the problem of quantifying forecast uncertainty in time-series with volatility clustering. We propose a unified framework for the quantification of forecast uncertainty that results in uncertainty estimates that closely match actual realised forecast errors in cryptocurrencies and U.S. stocks

    Out of sight, out of mind: accessibility for people with hidden disabilities in museums and heritage sites

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    As of 2020, an estimated 14.1 million residents of the United Kingdom reported a disability (DWP 2020). Within this population, approximately 6.1 million people have a hidden disability (Buhalis and Michopoulou 2011). These hidden disabilities range widely, from neurodiverse conditions like autism and dyslexia to long term chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia and arthritis. Due to the wide range of disabilities and their impact on a disabled person’s life, they have generally been underrepresented in accessibility studies. This thesis uncovers the accessibility needs of people with hidden disabilities, specifically in museums and heritage sites where they have heretofore mostly been overlooked. I utilise semi-structured interviews and correspondence with people with hidden disabilities, as well as participant-led experiences through three case study sites in Northern England, to understand the barriers they face. Their experiences help me expose the importance of passive accessibility – accessibility measures built directly into an exhibition design, such as adequate lighting and personal interpretation boards. Additionally, this thesis aims to understand the cultural forces that prevent or support accessibility-related improvements to such sites from taking place. By studying the cultural make-up of each case study organisation through ethnographic observations of the staff at these sites, institutional roadblocks to enacting accessibility-related adjustments are revealed. Specifically, the lack of communication at these sites presents a significant barrier to enacting accessibility suggestions from disabled visitors. Tying together the themes of active/passive accessibility and lack of communication is the theme of gaps in disability awareness, by which I mean that heritage organisations do not wilfully create these barriers to inclusion, and yet they create them still because they simply do not realise these things. Filling these gaps opens up countless possibilities for improving accessibility not only for people with hidden disabilities but for all visitors and staff at museums and heritage sites

    Security Elites in Egypt and Jordan after the Arab Spring : A Case Study on Securocracies’ Role on National Security, Domestic Power Politics, Regional Order and Middle Eastern Alliance Making between 2011 and 2021

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    The doctoral dissertation studied changes in the balance of power, alliance making and the hegemonic struggles of security elites within a Middle Eastern regional context over a ten year reference period between 2011 and 2021. The study focused on two case study countries: Egypt and Jordan. The results were compared within a historical context to the pre-Arab Spring era. The theoretical approach combined the English School of Thought and Middle Eastern Studies with a conceptual model of securocracy developed by the author. The primary contribution of the research is the realization of the core importance of securocracy within autocratic state systems. Inside securocracies there exists rivalling groups and organisations that counterbalance each other. The study points to the fact that the power struggle between executive powers – either purely domestic one or supported by foreign involvement, is the main driver behind why case study countries were in varying degrees dragged into instability and turmoil in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Securocracies can be divided into two main types: centralised and decentralised. The centralised model occurs when different elites groups have the same ”distance” to the ruler while having equal privileges and equal access to political power. The model predicts durability and stability of the regime (status quo). In the de-centralised model, there is an ongoing struggle amongst elite groups and “distances” to ruler are not equal, neither are the privileges. In Egypt the hegemonic struggle amongst elites took precedence over the interests and stability of the state after the Arab Spring and has continued since then. The situation at the end of 2021 is a de-centralised model where all executive powers are concentrated within President al-Sisi’s family dynasty (palace) and the leadership of military intelligence. This de-centralised type of securocracy makes Egypt’s situation fragile. Any impact from the outside, such as the Biden administration’s decision to impose additional conditions on U.S. financial military aid, could lead to a new hegemonic struggle challenging al-Sisi’s power. The securocracy’s survival strategy found in the study was the use of vertical power at all levels of the state hierarchy (” the winner takes it all”). In the situation of a power struggle, the ruler uses omni-balancing i.e., alliance making with powerful foreign states in order to gain an advantage against domestic rivals and revisionist regional states. The Egyptian example is al-Sisi’s rapprochement with Russia’s President Putin and his distancing of Egypt from its previous role of being the United States’ loyal Middle Eastern ally. The Jordanian example however, is the opposite, resulting in even closer relations with the United States since January 2021 when the two countries signed an updated Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The study also highlights that decisions concerning ruler succession in authoritarian states take place behind-the-scenes amongst the securocracy as it, per rule, prefers to choose a member inside its own interest group or alternatively a political figurehead that commits to protect securocracy’s privileged interests in exchange of their own power position. Within the Middle East, the recent U.S. pivot to Asia-Pacific created an opportunity for Russia to make a come-back. Russia, however, does not have the resources to compensate for the loss of U.S. financial military aid to the security elites. This in turn, and with Russia’s consent, has given space for regional state actors, particularly, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi-Arabia, to increase their influence. Gulf support to the regional clients is not free of charge: they request their clients adopt their own threat perceptions, take sides in armed conflicts and contribute to military capabilities which support the sponsors’ regional foreign and security policy goals.Väitöstutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin kymmenen vuoden ajanjaksolla voimatasapainon muutosta Lähi-idän alueellisessa valtarakenteessa, liittolaissuhteiden muutoksia sekä turvallisuuseliittien roolia maan sisäisessä valtataistelussa. Tuloksia verrattiin historiallisessa kontekstissa arabikevättä edeltävään aikaan kahdessa tapaustutkimusmaassa: Egyptissä ja Jordaniassa. Teoriaviitekehyksenä sovellettiin Englantilaisen koulukunnan ja Lähi-idän tutkimuksen teoriamalleja, sekä tutkijan kehittelemää sekurokratian konseptuaalista mallia. Tutkimuksen keskeinen tulos on havainto sekurokratian merkittävästä roolista osana autoritaarista valtiomallia. Sekurokratian sisälle on luotu useita toinen toistaan tasapainottavia ryhmittymiä. Tapaustutkimusmaiden arabikevään jälkeisen turvallisuustilanteen muutoksia selittävien tekijöiden joukossa turvallisuuseliittien valtakamppailu nousi merkittävään rooliin. Valtakamppailua käytiin eliittien kesken joko pelkästään maan sisällä tai vaihtoehtoisesti osin myös valtion ulkopuolisten voimien tukemana. Tutkimuksen perusteella sekurokratiat voidaan jakaa kahteen päätyyppiin: keskitettyyn ja hajautettuun malliin. Jos eri turvallisuuseliitti-ryhmien edut, vallankäyttö ja etäisyys vallan keskipisteeseen ovat tasapainossa puhutaan keskitetyn sekurokratian mallista, mikä ennustaa vallassa olevan regiimin pysyvyyttä ja vakautta. Jos taas sekurokratian rakenne on hajautetun mallin mukainen, sen valtakamppailu voi johtaa yhden osan pyrkimyksiin hegemonia-asemasta. Egyptin tapauksessa arabikevään jälkeinen turvallisuuseliittien valtakamppailu asetettiin maan vakauden edelle ja eliittien valtakamppailu on jatkunut tähän päivään. Tilanteessa vuoden 2021 lopussa valta on al-Sisin perhedynastialla ja sotilastiedustelun eliitillä (hajautettu malli). Hajautettu malli ei ennusta pitkäaikaista vallassa pysymistä; vahva ulkopuolinen heräte, esimerkiksi Bidenin hallinnon sotilaallisen talousavun lopettaminen voisi johtaa uuteen valtakamppailuun ja al-Sisin valta-aseman haastamiseen. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että sekurokratoiden selviytymisstrategiana on vallanvertikaalin käyttö valtiohallinnon eri tasoilla. Valtakamppailun tilanteessa käytetään tasapainotusstrategiaa (omni-balancing), missä alueellisia vahvoja valtioita ja suurvaltoja pyritään yhdistämään hallitsijan puolelle kilpailevia eliittiryhmittymiä tai revisionistisia ulkovaltoja vastaan. Egyptissä presidentti al-Sisin valtaannousu johti maan lähentymiseen presidentti Putinin Venäjän kanssa sekä etääntymiseen aiemmasta Yhdysvalloille uskollisen Lähi-idän liittolaisen roolista. Jordaniassa puolestaan maa on nyt entistä tiiviimmin liittoutunut Yhdysvaltojen kanssa. Esimerkkinä tästä on tammikuussa 2021 maiden kesken solmittu sotilasyhteistyötä ja jordanialaisten tukikohtien käyttöä säätelevä isäntämaatuki-sopimus. Tutkimustulosten valossa autoritaariselle vallanperimykselle tyypillistä on se, että julkisuuteen näkymättömän sisäisen valtakamppailun jälkeen uudeksi valtionpäämieheksi pyritään nostamaan sekurokratian sisältä sen oman intressiryhmän edustaja, tai vaihtoehtoisesti sekurokratian valitsema ulkopuolinen poliitikko, jonka vastuulle korporaation intressien vaaliminen lankeaa vastapalveluksena sekurokratian tuesta keulakuva-poliitikon vallassa pitämiseksi. Alueellisen turvallisuusjärjestyksen osalta tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat sen, että Yhdysvaltojen painopisteen siirto Tyynellemerelle vii ja Aasiaan on antanut Venäjälle mahdollisuuden palauttaa vaikutusvaltaansa Lähiitään. Venäjällä ei kuitenkaan ole resursseja kompensoida Yhdysvaltojen arabivaltioiden turvallisuuseliiteille allokoimaa taloudellista tukea. Tämä on antanut tilaa alueellisten toimijoiden kuten Yhdistyneiden arabiemiirikuntien ja Saudi-Arabian vaikutusvallan kasvattamiselle - tosin Venäjän hyväksynnällä. Tuki ei myöskään tule ilmaiseksi, sillä sponsorit edellyttävät, että niille alisteisessa asemassa olevat maat omaksuvat tukijavaltioidensa uhkakuvat, sekä konfliktitilanteissa kontribuoivat sotilaallisia kyvykkyyksiä näiden valtioiden ulko- ja turvallisuuspoliittisten päämäärien saavuttamiseksi
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