The work of community gardens: reclaiming place for community in the city

The growth of community gardens has become the source of much academic debate regarding their role in community empowerment in the contemporary city. In this article, we focus upon the work being done in community gardens, using gardening in Glasgow as a case study. We argue that while community gardening cannot be divorced from more regressive underlying economic and social processes accompanying neoliberal austerity policies, it does provide space for important forms of work that address social needs and advance community empowerment. In developing this argument we use recent geographical scholarship concerning the generative role of place in bringing together individuals and communities in new collective forms of working. Community gardens are places that facilitate the recovery of individual agency, construction of new forms of knowledge and participation, and renewal of reflexive and proactive communities that provide broader lessons for building more progressive forms of work in cities

Spectral radiometry and tropospheric aerosols: Report of panel

The term aerosols, as used here, refers to the haze, smoke, and dust that appear in the troposphere. The term does not refer to the hydrometeors in cumulus and stratus clouds but does include the sulfuric acid-water droplets which are assumed to predominate in the stratospheric aerosol layer. The aerosol properties that were measured from satellites and those which can be made in the near term (up to 1992) will be reviewed. The capabilities that will exist in the years 1992 to 2000, with implementation of EOS, are then discussed. Finally, a few words will be said concerning the potential for aerosol measurements for the decade after 2000

Sine praejudicio? Economics and the 2014 Scottish independence referendum

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the contribution of expert economic opinion to the 2014 referendum campaigns on Scottish independence. We argue that the input from economics to both sides of the debate, as well as to independent analysis, was constrained by a mainstream economics framing. The result was a focus on calculable outcomes predicated on unchanging institutions and behaviour, and the question of currency arrangements that assumes the status quo is an optimal currency area. As the consequences of constitutional change for institutions and behaviour are uncertain, an equilibrium framework treats anything beyond calculable prediction as a shock, inducing fear of the unknown. In contrast, a political economy approach is tailored to analysing uncertain developments and encompassing the broader issues relating to values, democracy and power, and is thus better suited to the analysis of constitutional change

Reconfiguring economic democracy: generating new forms of collective agency, individual economic freedom and public participation

We seek to advance debate and thinking about economic democracy. While recognising the importance of existing approaches focused upon collective bargaining and workplace organisation, we articulate a perspective that emphasises the importance of individual economic rights, capabilities and freedoms at a time when established norms and protections at work are in retreat in many parts of the world. We outline a framework where both individual rights to self-government of one’s own labour, as well as the right of all citizens to participate in economic decision-making, are emphasised. The framework identifies a set of underlying principles, prerequisites, critical spheres for intervention, progressive institutional arrangements, and policies in pursuit of an expanded agenda around economic democracy. In this way, economic democracy potentially empowers individuals and creates the basis for generating new and sustainable alliances that challenge elite dominance in contemporary capitalism

Social welfare and social control

This chapter provides an illustration of the elements of what may be considered to be heterodox economic thinking on the nature of social welfare and social control, and the relationships between them. We assume that social welfare relates to a class of functions, such as education, economic security, health care, and housing, which are provided by, or associated with the welfare state in developed or high-income capitalist economies. 1 This is not to say that the state necessarily delivers services in those areas, but is responsible for their provisioning, implying also some varying forms of financial commitment. Our description departs from the neoclassical economic interpretation of social welfare, which is largely delineated by welfare economics, following utilitarian and/or Paretian reasoning in attempting to establish and measure well-being (Mandler 1999). Heterodox economic approaches reject the philosophical basis of this notion of social welfare (Lawson 2006). Instead, according to Lawson, heterodoxy is concerned with the analysis of the social structures and processes that influence material well-being

VeSPA: The SuperWASP Variable Star Photometry Archive

SuperWASP Variable Stars is a Zooniverse citizen science project in which the public label photometric light curve plots showing potential variations in stellar brightness. The volunteers label each plot as one of several types of variable star, or as “unknown” or “junk”. Their labels are combined to produce an aggregated classification. We are publishing the first data release from the project via an interactive website called VeSPA. The results can be searched, filtered, and exported in CSV format. Raw FITS data is available to download

A SuperWASP Light Curve Displaying a Single Long-duration Transit: A Jupiter Size Exoplanet in a Very Distant Orbit?

We present the SuperWASP light curve of a 10th magnitude A7V star containing a single, well-defined U-shaped transit-like event lasting around 11 days with a depth of 1.1%. The star is otherwise non-variable throughout the 8 yr duration of the observations. If the event is modeled as an exoplanet transit, it is compatible with a 1.8 RJ exoplanet in a ∼205 au orbit with a period of ∼2200 yr

Good Food for All in Glasgow: An Interim Assessment of the Glasgow City Food Plan

No abstract available

A brief review of handgrip strength and sport performance

Cronin, J, Lawton, T, Harris, N, Kilding, A, and McMaster, DT. A brief review of handgrip strength and sport performance. J Strength Cond Res 31(11): 3187-3217, 2017-Tests of handgrip strength (HGS) and handgrip force (HGF) are commonly used across a number of sporting populations. Measures of HGS and HGF have also been used by practitioners and researchers to evaluate links with sports performance. This article first evaluates the validity and reliability of various handgrip dynamometers (HGD) and HGF sensors, providing recommendations for procedures to ensure that precise and reliable data are collected as part of an athlete's testing battery. Second, the differences in HGS between elite and subelite athletes and the relationships between HGS, HGF, and sports performance are discussed