A manifesto for cyborg pedagogy?

This paper was published in International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 10 (2), pp. 195 - 201, 2001. © 2001 T. Angus et al.This paper seeks to give an impression of what can happen if teachers encourage their students to take personally the issues they study, and to think and to write about how their identities and everyday lives are inseparable from the kinds of issues studied in the geography classroom. It discusses three principles – situated knowledge, cyborg ontologies and border pedagogy – which have guided the organisation of an undergraduate course on the geographies of material culture. This attempts to get students to think through their connections with the lives of distant others through simple acts of consumption, and the responsibilities which they might therefore have. This paper illustrates the kinds of student writing that can come out of such a course and the ways in which this issue of responsibility should be, and is, talked about

Motorsport Valley revisited:Cluster evolution, strategic cluster coupling and resilience

Over 20 years ago a series of papers identified a strikingly dominant economic cluster – the UK’s Motorsport Valley (MSV) – which led to MSV becoming an international exemplar of concepts such as agglomeration, clusters and knowledge-driven systems of regional development. Utilising an evolutionary perspective on cluster development, this paper asks ‘whatever happened to MSV?’. Drawing on the framework of strategic cluster coupling, four cluster development episodes are conceptualised that each depict the dynamic evolution of the cluster’s multi-scalar institutional environment, strategic coupling trajectories and economic development outcomes. Reflecting the emerging synthesis between evolutionary economic geography and geographical political economy, the paper describes an extended case study of cluster development, an evolutionary process of strategic cluster coupling and, ultimately, an example of cluster resilience. Through a focus on strategic cluster coupling, the paper provides further understanding of cluster evolution and path development mechanisms at key moments of cluster reconfiguration – and an empirical update and continuation of the economic story and cluster lifecycle of MSV

Government Control Over Health-Related Not-For-Profit Organisations: Agency for International Development v Alliance for Open Society International Inc 570 US_ (2013)

The relationship between government and the not-for-profit (NFP) sector has important implications for society, especially in relation to the delivery of public health measures and the protection of the environment. In key health-related areas such as provision of medical services, welfare, foreign aid and education, governments have traditionally preferred for the NFP sector to act as service partners, with the relationship mediated through grants or funding agreements. This service delivery arrangement is intended to provide a diversity of voices, and encourage volunteerism and altruism, in conjunction with the purposes and objectives of the relevant NGO. Under the pretence of "accountability", however, governments increasingly are seeking to impose intrusive conditions on grantees, which limit their ability to fulfil their mission and advocate on behalf of their constituents. This column examines the United States Supreme Court decision, Agency for International Development v Alliance for Open Society International Inc 570 US_(2013), and compares it to the removal of gag clauses in Australian federal funding rules. Recent national changes to the health-related NFP sector in Australia are then discussed, such as those found in the Charities Act 2013 (Cth) and the Not-for-Profit Sector Freedom to Advocate Act 2013 (Cth). These respectively include the establishment of the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profit Commission, the modernising of the definition of "charity" and statutory blocks on "gag" clauses. This analysis concludes with a survey of recent moves by Australian States to impose new restrictions on the ability of health-related NFPs to lobby against harmful government policy Among the responses considered is the protection afforded by s 51l(xxiiiA) of the Australian Constitution. This constitutional guarantee appears to have been focused historically on preventing medical and dental practitioners and related small businesses being practically coerced into government or large-scale private corporate operations. As such, it may prohibit civil conscription arising not only from "gag clauses" in managed care contracts, but also from "gag clauses" in governmental ideological controls over taxpayer-funded, health-related NFPs

Sports Science Roundtable: Does Sports Science Research Influence Practice?

As sports scientists, we claim to make a signifi cant contribution to the body of knowledge that infl uences athletic practice and performance. Is this the reality? At the inaugural congress of the Australian Association for Exercise and Sports Science, a panel of well-credentialed academic experts with experience in the applied environment debated the question, Does sports-science research influence practice? The fi rst task was to defi ne “sports-science research,” and it was generally agreed that it is concerned with providing evidence that improves sports performance. When practices are equally effective, sports scientists also have a role in identifying practices that are safer, more time effi cient, and more enjoyable. There were varying views on the need for sports-science research to be immediately relevant to coaches or athletes. Most agreed on the importance of communicating the results of sports-science research, not only to the academic community but also to coaches and athletes, and the need to encourage both short- and long-term research. The panelists then listed examples of sports-science research that they believe have infl uenced practice, as well as strategies to ensure that sports-science research better infl uences practice

Visualisation of BioPAX Networks using BioLayout Express (3D).

BioLayout Express (3D) is a network analysis tool designed for the visualisation and analysis of graphs derived from biological data. It has proved to be powerful in the analysis of gene expression data, biological pathways and in a range of other applications. In version 3.2 of the tool we have introduced the ability to import, merge and display pathways and protein interaction networks available in the BioPAX Level 3 standard exchange format. A graphical interface allows users to search for pathways or interaction data stored in the Pathway Commons database. Queries using either gene/protein or pathway names are made via the cPath2 client and users can also define the source and/or species of information that they wish to examine. Data matching a query are listed and individual records may be viewed in isolation or merged using an 'Advanced' query tab. A visualisation scheme has been defined by mapping BioPAX entity types to a range of glyphs. Graphs of these data can be viewed and explored within BioLayout as 2D or 3D graph layouts, where they can be edited and/or exported for visualisation and editing within other tools

The Pipeline Project: Trajectories of classroom behaviour and academic progress : a study of student engagement with learning

The Pipeline Project addresses three questions concerning the relationship between the classroom behaviour of students and their academic performance. First, to what extent does classroom behaviour explain why students fall behind and fail to meet acceptable standards in literacy and numeracy; second, if student classroom behaviour does influence academic performance, what forms of classroom behaviour are of most significance; and third, are the students whose behaviour has contributed to their underperformance in literacy and numeracy likely to ever catch up