Has Wahhabi Islam played a part in the rise of global terrorism ?

The term ‘Wahhabi’ has been applied to a variety of forms of Islam, across various geographical locations, and is often associated with radical Islamic groups that actually have little or no connection to the ideology that Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab espoused. However, the involvement of Saudi nationals in the 9/11 attacks has led to Wahhabi Islam and Saudi Arabia coming under intense scrutiny, and requires us to have a greater understanding of the core tenets of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s teachings. The decade since 9/11 has been characterised by polemical discussions of Islam, and current representations of Wahhabi Islam are dominated by the ‘clash of civilisations’ attitude. Most accounts therefore reveal little about the true nature of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s doctrine, and leave no room for the possibility of his dawa being a peaceful or socially beneficial tradition. My aim is to explore the origins and development of Wahhabi Islam, comparing Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s interpretation of Islam to that of other Islamic thinkers, and examining its place in the modern Islamic milieu in order to evaluate the claims of those who say that it is, in whole or in part, responsible for the rise of global terrorism

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Report of initial scoping workshops Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for Defra

This report presents an overview of findings from the initial scoping workshops held as part of the ELMs Test and Trial: Co-designing long-term agreements for landscape recovery. The aim of the initial workshops was to gather participants’ thoughts on long-term agreements, collaborative arrangements within agricultural or environmental practice, and private or blended finance agreements. The workshops also sought to gain insights into any existing experience participants may have with these matters. Four two-hour workshops were held during this scoping phase. Firstly, an online stakeholder workshop was held with ten participants. This was followed by three in-person farmer workshops; a total of eleven participants attended across these latter three workshops. These workshops employed a mix of discussion and participatory techniques, in order to elicit in-depth information according to the pre-designed protocol. There was broad consensus across all the workshops that Landscape Recovery agreements should be holistic in their approach to environmental gains, covering a range of different outcomes rather than having a single focus

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Report of template agreement co-design and testing workshops. Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for Defra

This report presents an overview of findings from the template long-term agreement (LTA) co-design and testing workshops and interviews, held as part of the ELM Test and Trial: Co-designing long-term agreements for landscape recovery. The aim of these was to test, with participants, elements of the template LTA that has been drafted. The workshops and interviews allowed the research team to further co-design and refine the template agreement according to participants’ feedback

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Report of scenario building workshops Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for Defra

This report presents an overview of findings from the scenario building workshops, held as part of the ELM Test and Trial: Co-designing long-term agreements for landscape recovery. The aim of these workshops was to develop, with participants, three high-level scenarios around which a long-term agreement for landscape recovery (LR) might be formed. Potential barriers and enablers to a long-term agreement based on each scenario were tested out, and participants’ suggestions for improvements were used to refine the scenarios. Consensus was sought as to which scenario should be taken forward to the next phase of the Test and Trial, where a template long-term agreement will be drafted based upon one of these. Two two-hour workshops were held during this phase. Firstly, an online workshop was held with ten non-farming stakeholders. This was followed by a two-hour in-person farmer workshop which was attended by five participants. In addition, invitees who were unable to attend either of the workshops were given the chance to comment on the scenarios by contributing to the online Miro boards or via email correspondence for a period of two weeks after each workshop. The workshops employed a mix of discussion and participatory techniques, in order to elicit in-depth information according to the predesigned protocol

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Final Report. Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for DEFRA

This report presents an overview of the findings from the Defra-funded ELM Test and Trial: Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery. It describes the co-design methodology that the Test and Trial (T&T) used, and explains the co-designed development process used to produce a template head of terms long-term agreement (LTA). This is followed by a detailed summary of the key findings from each milestone of the T&T, before we draw conclusions about the potential viability of an LTA of this kind for Landscape Recovery (LR). Finally, recommendations are made for increasing the likelihood of the uptake and successful implementation of LTAs, especially in lowland, agriculturally productive landscapes. During this T&T, we held eight two-hour workshops, four with non-farming stakeholders and four with farmers1. We also held two-hour group interviews with a total of six farmers, and follow-up and evaluation interviews with six participants. A total of 35 different participants took part in the T&T: 22 stakeholders and 13 farmers. Most participants attended workshops during at least two milestones of the T&T, lending consistency to discussions over the course of the T&T and ensuring that outputs have been co-designed with participants

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Head of Terms Template Agreement. Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for DEFRA

This document provides Heads of Terms (HoT) guidance for drafting the terms for a long-term agreement (LTA) to enter into a Landscape Recovery (LR) project with Defra and other private sources of funding, should a blended finance approach be adopted. The template HoT has been informed by a combination of desk research, workshops and interviews with land managers and other stakeholders, and the expert knowledge of Strutt & Parker. After an initial review of literature on existing forms of LTA (see Barkley, Short & Chivers 2022), we carried out eight workshops and a series of group and individual interviews with a total of 35 participants (see Barkley, Chivers & Short 2022a, 2022b and 2023). During these, we sought to better understand the key barriers and enablers to participation in LTAs for LR. We also co-designed, with participants, a hypothetical Natural Flood Management (NFM) scenario, around which the template LTA is framed. Initial drafts of clauses for the HoT agreement were shared with participants at workshops and interviews, and final revisions have been made to the document as a result of participant feedback from these sessions. We focused on developing, with participants, an agreement that could meet the needs of agriculturally productive land managers in a lowland, multi-party context. In this document, we detail the clauses that would likely need to be included when drawing up an LTA in this context. By presenting these clauses as they are shown here, we illustrate the many variations that may arise when working with different land managers and stakeholders, each of whom are likely to have differing requirements of an agreement

Principles for delivering transformative co‐design methodologies with multiple stakeholders for achieving nature recovery in England

Achieving successful multi‐stakeholder collaboration for sustainable outcomes is complex. This paper provides key principles for future co‐design projects aimed at fostering an inclusive approach to research. These have been developed based on a novel methodology that co‐designed the essential components of a long‐term, collaborative agreement for a nature recovery scheme in England. Using an assortment of iterative, deliberative participatory methods, this research engaged a wide variety of stakeholders to produce a template agreement for an agri‐environmental policy. We demonstrate that a flexible, highly reflective approach resulted in positive engagement with previously marginalised stakeholders. The approach also successfully navigated the unequal power dynamics seen both within and between groups. Finally, multiple feedback loops allowed participants to continually build on previous interactions as they developed and reviewed the agreement. By drawing out the complexities of the co‐design process, this paper explains how co‐design efforts can produce potentially transformative outputs. We hope that the principles introduced here offer a useful starting point for those planning to undertake multi‐stakeholder co‐design

Executive functions in adults with developmental dyslexia

Background: Executive functioning (EF) deficits are well recognized in developmental dyslexia, yet the majority of studies have concerned children rather than adults, ignored the subjective experience of the individual with dyslexia (with regard to their own EFs), and have not followed current theoretical perspectives on EFs. Aims and Methods: The current study addressed these shortfalls by administering a self-report measure of EF (BRIEF-A; Roth, Isquith & Gioia, 2005) and experimental tasks to IQ-matched groups of adults with and without dyslexia. The laboratory-based tasks tested the three factors constituting the framework of EF proposed by Miyake et al. (2000). Results: In comparison to the group without dyslexia, the participants with dyslexia self-reported more frequent EF problems in day-to-day life, with these difficulties centering on metacognitive processes (working memory, planning, task monitoring, and organization) rather than on the regulation of emotion and behaviour. The participants with dyslexia showed significant deficits in EF (inhibition, set shifting, and working memory). Conclusions and Implications: The findings indicated that dyslexia-related problems have an impact on the daily experience of adults with the condition. Further, EF difficulties are present in adulthood across a range of laboratory-based measures, and, given the nature of the experimental tasks presented, extend beyond difficulties related solely to phonological processing