Linguistic incompetence: giving an account of researching multilingually

This paper considers the place of linguistic competence and incompetence in the context of researching multilingually. It offers a critique of the concept of competence and explores the performative dimensions of multilingual research and its narration, through the philosophy of Judith Butler, and in particular her study Giving an account of oneself. It explores aspects of risk, justice, narrative limit and a morality of multilingualism in emergent multilingual research frameworks. These theoretical dimensions are explored through consideration of ‘linguistically incompetent’ ethnographic work with refugees and asylum seekers, in contexts of hospitality and in life long learning research in the Gaza Strip, and of early attempts to learn new languages. The paper offers a prospect of a relational approach to researching multilingually and affirms the vulnerability at the heart of linguistic hospitality

Loudly sing cuckoo : More-than-human seasonalities in Britain

This research was funded by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, grant number AH/E009573/1.Peer reviewedPostprin

Flow and retreat of the Late Quaternary Pine Island-Thwaites palaeo-ice stream, West Antarctica

Multibeam swath bathymetry and sub-bottom profiler data are used to establish constraints on the flow and retreat history of a major palaeo-ice stream that carried the combined discharge from the parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet now occupied by the Pine Island and Thwaites glacier basins. Sets of highly elongated bedforms show that, at the last glacial maximum, the route of the Pine Island-Thwaites palaeo-ice stream arced north-northeast following a prominent cross-shelf trough. In this area, the grounding line advanced to within similar to 68 km of, and probably reached, the shelf edge. Minimum ice thickness is estimated at 715 m on the outer shelf, and we estimate a minimum ice discharge of similar to 108 km(3) yr(-1) assuming velocities similar to today's Pine Island glacier (similar to 2.5 km yr(-1)). Additional bed forms observed in a trough northwest of Pine Island Bay likely formed via diachronous ice flows across the outer shelf and demonstrate switching ice stream behavior. The "style" of ice retreat is also evident in five grounding zone wedges, which suggest episodic deglaciation characterized by halts in grounding line migration up-trough. Stillstands occurred in association with changes in ice bed gradient, and phases of inferred rapid retreat correlate to higher bed slopes, supporting theoretical studies that show bed geometry as a control on ice margin recession. However, estimates that individual wedges could have formed within several centuries still imply a relatively rapid overall retreat. Our findings show that the ice stream channeled a substantial fraction of West Antarctica's discharge in the past, just as the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers do today

The roles of the cation transporters CHX21 and CHX23 in the development of Arabidopsis thaliana

The Arabidopsis thaliana genome encodes a family of 28 proteins whose members have been associated with the transport of monovalent cations across membranes. Experiments have been performed to elucidate the biochemical function and the role in plant development of two closely related members of this CHX family. A genotype carrying a knockout of the AtCHX23 gene (At1g05580) showed no phenotype when grown in glasshouse conditions. In particular, it did not exhibit the reduced root growth phenotype observed for a knockout of its homologue AtCHX21 when exposed to elevated sodium concentration. However, it was not possible to produce plants that were homozygous knockout for both AtCHX21 and AtCHX23. Reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) experiments revealed that both genes are highly expressed in flower buds, flowers, and pollen. However, examination of pollen grain viability and pollen tube growth through excised styles did not reveal a phenotypic difference between the chx21–chx23– condition and other haplotypes. Crosses between selected mutants and wild-type plants in which the chx21–chx23– haplotype was produced by either the male or female parent demonstrated unequivocally that the chx21–chx23– haplotype could not pass through the female line. This suggests that the genes share a critical function in the development and/or function of the female gametophyte and that this function cannot be provided by other members of the AtCHX gene family. Experiments were carried out using the heterologous expression of AtCHX23 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae genotypes carrying combinations of deletions of genes involved in the transport of sodium or potassium across membranes. The results show that CHX23 would only complement the poor colony growth phenotype associated with the deletion of the yeast gene kha1. The conclusion is that both AtCHX21 and AtCHX23 act in potassium homeostasis within the female gametophyte and this is discussed in terms of the diversification of gene sequence and function within the CHX gene family

The interpretive approach to religious education : challenging Thompson's interpretation

In a recent book chapter, Matthew Thompson makes some criticisms of my work, including the interpretive approach to religious education and the research and activity of Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit. Against the background of a discussion of religious education in the public sphere, my response challenges Thompson’s account, commenting on his own position in relation to dialogical approaches to religious education. The article rehearses my long held view that the ideal form of religious education in fully state funded schools of a liberal democracy should be ‘secular’ but not ‘secularist’; there should be no implication of an axiomatic secular humanist interpretation of religions

Understanding Anthropological Understanding: for a merological anthropology

In this paper I argue for a merological anthropology in which ideas of ‘partiality’ and ‘practical adequacy’ provide a way out of the impasse of relativism which is implied by post-modernism and the related abandonment of a concern with ‘truth’. Ideas such as ‘aptness’ and ‘faithfulness’ enable us to re-establish empirical foundations without having to espouse a simple realism which has been rightly criticised. Ideas taken from ethnomethodology, particularly the way we bootstrap from ‘practical adequacy’ to ‘warrants for confidence’ point to a merological anthropology in which we recognize that we do not and cannot know everything, but that we can have reasons for being confident in the little we know

Beings in their own right? Exploring Children and young people's sibling and twin relationships in the Minority World

This paper examines the contributions that the sociological study of sibship and twinship in the Minority World can make to childhood studies. It argues that, in providing one forum within which to explore children and young people's social relationships, we can add to our understanding of children and young people's interdependence and develop a more nuanced understanding of agency. As emergent subjects, children, young people and adults are in a process of ‘becoming’. However, this does not mean that they can ‘become’ anything they choose to. The notion of negotiated interdependence (Punch 2002) is useful in helping us to grasp the contingent nature of children and young people's agency

More than a method? Organisational ethnography as a way of imagining the social

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The authors–two anthropologists and an organisational theorist, all organisational ethnographers–discuss their understanding and practices of organisational ethnography (OE) as a way of imagining and reflect on how similar this understanding may be for young organisational researchers and students in particular. The discussion leads to the conclusion that OE may be regarded as a methodology but that it has a much greater potential when it is reclaiming its roots: to become a mode of doing social science on the meso-level. The discussion is based on an analysis of both historical material and the contemporary learning experiences of teaching OE as more than a method to our students

Cervical mucus monitoring prevalence and associated fecundability in women trying to conceive

To assess the use of cervical mucus monitoring (CMM) in women trying to conceive and determine whether monitoring is associated with increased cycle-specific probability of conception (fecundability)