Mediapolis: an introduction

The organisation of this workshop has been prompted by concerns with the way media so often seem to get left out of writing on cities and urban politics (rather than vice-versa). We agree with Iveson’s (2007) argument that urban and media studies have much more in the way of shared concerns when it comes to politics than is conventionally thought to be the case. As a result, we are hoping this workshop will create an occasion for urban scholars to meet those studying media, to explore what difference it makes to explicitly consider the place of media practices in making a politics of cities, and conversely, to consider what is left out when such practices are relegated to the background. In certain ways, we are suggesting a contemporary return to something like Robert Park’s inclination in relation to cities and media. In his seminal essay on the natural history of the newspaper, for example (Park, 1925), Park exhibits a style which does not generally seem to distinguish between or oppose the urban and the media when studying politics and democracy. This surely has something to do with Park’s own intellectual period, and the absence of established disciplines in media or urban studies. Yet this is also precisely the point of the workshop: an opportunity for engagement and discussion through a similar sort of pre-disciplinary spirit

A NEW AND FAMILIAR POWER: THE RISE OF PENTECOSTALISM AMONG THE BLACKFEET IN MONTANA, 1940-1975

This thesis charts the rise of Pentecostalism among the Blackfeet in and around Browning, Montana on the Blackfeet Reservation from 1940 through 1975. The Pentecostal message was first brought to the Blackfeet around 1940 by white ministers with the Assemblies of God from nearby Cut Bank, Montana. By 1965 the Blackfeet Pentecostal movement was led entirely by Blackfeet ministers, leading to the proliferation of the Pentecostal message among the tribe. The Pentecostal movement made tremendous inroads among the Blackfeet because of its emphasis on receiving dramatic power from a divine source. This experience of divine empowerment was both new, yet familiar to Blackfeet people. This essay describes how Pentecostalism took root among the Blackfeet in the mid-twentieth century, a time of increased poverty, significant population migration, and difficult political turmoil on the Blackfeet reservation. This thesis argues that Pentecostalism exploded among the Blackfeet because of its dual emphasis on practitioners regularly receiving supernatural power and the commissioning of new leaders through divine calling. The promulgation of Pentecostalism among the Blackfeet was aided by their participation in a robust pan-Indian Pentecostal network, a Native religious innovation, which helped link Native Pentecostals from across the northwestern United States in training and mentoring relationships. This thesis elevates the Native voices of both Pentecostal practitioners and non-Pentecostal Blackfeet in relating the narrative of the rise of Pentecostalism among the Blackfeet. In addition to an analysis of the economic and political factors that led to the promulgation of Pentecostalism among the Blackfeet, this essay also compares some of the similarities between Pentecostalism and traditional Blackfeet religion. It explains how two generations of Blackfeet Pentecostal converts dealt differently with the tensions that developed between Pentecostalism and traditional Native ways

Re-engaging the intersections of media, politics and cities

Within contemporary social theory and social science, urban and media studies are seen as zones of speciality, with distinctive theoretical traditions and substantive concerns. This introduction situates the four short essays making up this Debates and Developments section in relation to a recent interdisciplinary workshop held in June 2008 at The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, where participants were encouraged to experiment with and rework the longstanding conceptual differences and disciplinary policing that so often sets apart media and urban studies. The essays showcased here focus on the theoretical approaches urban scholars might bring to bear on studies of how cities and media come together around matters of politics

The simplest demonstrations of quantum nonlocality

We investigate the complexity cost of demonstrating the key types of nonclassical correlations-Bell inequality violation, Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen (EPR)-steering, and entanglement-with independent agents, theoretically and in a photonic experiment. We show that the complexity cost exhibits a hierarchy among these three tasks, mirroring the recently discovered hierarchy for how robust they are to noise. For Bell inequality violations, the simplest test is the well-known Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt test, but for EPR-steering and entanglement the tests that involve the fewest number of detection patterns require nonprojective measurements. The simplest EPR-steering test requires a choice of projective measurement for one agent and a single nonprojective measurement for the other, while the simplest entanglement test uses just a single nonprojective measurement for each agent. In both of these cases, we derive our inequalities using the concept of circular two-designs. This leads to the interesting feature that in our photonic demonstrations, the correlation of interest is independent of the angle between the linear polarizers used by the two parties, which thus require no alignment

The reach of citizenship: Locating the politics of industrial air pollution in Durban and beyond

This paper develops a relational understanding of the geographies of citizenship action, using the example of environmental activism in Durban as an empirical reference point. We argue that citizenship involves an interactive dynamic shaped by different actors' capacities to project authority and influence over distance by enacting different modalities of spatial reach. Post-apartheid environmental politics illustrates how the relationship between the subjects of environmental rights and agents of obligation is both de-territorialised and re-territorialised by the activities of environmental activists. We examine the politics of attributing responsibility for urban industrial pollution in Durban, and identify two modalities of spatial reach through which environmental rights have been given weight. We conclude by emphasising that forms of transnational activism, while indicative in some respects of emergent styles of cosmopolitan citizenship, remain oriented by the goals of realizing national citizenship rights

Influences on academics' approaches to development: voices from below

The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to explore faculty-based academics’ views on what influences their behaviours and attitudes towards their development. Informed by critical realist ontology, the data collection was carried out through narrative interviews with academics in two contrasting English Universities. Findings, or areas for reflection, have emerged about the constraints and enablements academics perceive in respect of their professional development. In particular, themes such as the significance of professional status; misaligned initiatives and priorities; the influence of supportive networks; and emergent personal, individual concerns have surfaced. The conclusion is drawn that the significance of agency raises the importance of responding to the ‘voices from below’

Patient experience of care in a student-faculty collaborative practice

Student Run Clinics (SRCs) are a popular means of caring for the underserved while providing valuable medical education opportunities. Reports of patient experience surveys are rare in this setting. This is troublesome because it is possible that underserved patients, who are more likely to receive care at SRCs, are not receiving the same level of care as at more traditional medical practices. The purpose of this research was to measure patient experience in a student-led medical clinic. The method included the use of patient experience surveys, which were self-administered pre-visit and self- and interviewer administered post-visit. The key results, 100% of patients felt treated with respect. 81.4% of patients would “definitely” and 16.3% would “somewhat” refer their family and friends to the clinic. 87% reported being seen within 15 minutes of their appointment time; 60% reported that they knew they would be seen by medical students and a doctor. This data has been useful to our student-led clinic in streamlining clinic flow, reducing wait times and building awareness of our structure. Our hope is this study will encourage others SRCs to adopt similar student-faculty collaborative research based practices to enhance care for SRC patients while teaching students to use patient feedback to improve quality of care

Common variants of the TCF7L2 gene are associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in a UK-resident South Asian population

Background Recent studies have implicated variants of the transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene in genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes mellitus in several different populations. The aim of this study was to determine whether variants of this gene are also risk factors for type 2 diabetes development in a UK-resident South Asian cohort of Punjabi ancestry. Methods We genotyped four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of TCF7L2 (rs7901695, rs7903146, rs11196205 and rs12255372) in 831 subjects with diabetes and 437 control subjects. Results The minor allele of each variant was significantly associated with type 2 diabetes; the greatest risk of developing the disease was conferred by rs7903146, with an allelic odds ratio (OR) of 1.31 (95% CI: 1.11 – 1.56, p = 1.96 × 10-3). For each variant, disease risk associated with homozygosity for the minor allele was greater than that for heterozygotes, with the exception of rs12255372. To determine the effect on the observed associations of including young control subjects in our data set, we reanalysed the data using subsets of the control group defined by different minimum age thresholds. Increasing the minimum age of our control subjects resulted in a corresponding increase in OR for all variants of the gene (p ≤ 1.04 × 10-7). Conclusion Our results support recent findings that TCF7L2 is an important genetic risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes in multiple ethnic groups