In the border's shadow: Reimagining urban spaces in Strasbourg, 1918-39

Copyright @ The Author(s) 2013. This is the author's final version of the article. The final publication is available from the link below.This article explores controversies over festivities and monument construction in interwar Strasbourg. After the return of Alsace to France in 1918, these battles became emblematic of broader debates about the region’s place in France and relationship with Germany, as different groups and individuals in Paris and Strasbourg used them to promote their views of the reintegration of Alsace into France. In these debates, the dominant understanding of Strasbourg treated the city as the limits of French territory, and a frontier with Germany. But this idea was challenged by ideas of the city as the heart of a transnational, cross border community, or a regional capital. These ideas co-existed, but were contested and were not articulated simultaneously. Through a discussion of the use of these ideas in debates over urban spaces in Strasbourg, this article traces how attitudes towards borders change over time, and vary according to the political context.British Academ

Regional Republicans: the Alsatian socialists and the politics of primary schooling in Alsace, 1918-1939

This article deals with political discussions about the place of language and religion in interwar Alsatian primary schools viewed through the lens of the local Socialist Party (SFIO). After Alsace's return to France in 1918, primary schools exemplified the problematic process of reintegrating the province, and parties from across the political spectrum discussed the appropriate language of instruction and whether Alsatian schoolchildren should receive religious education. For the Alsatian Socialists, the answer lay in the broad reform needed to ease reintegration and was motivated by their self-proclaimed republicanism. Thus the party argued for secularity, which would place the province on the same terrain as all other parts of France, and for bilingualism, which would allow the retention of Alsatian regional cultures. In making this argument, the Alsatian SFIO revealed that not everyone in interwar France associated regional language with religion or believed that republican ideas needed to come packaged in the French language. Moreover, the SFIO's actions offer insight into the development of regional political cultures and the varieties of grassroots republicanism in interwar France

Closed time like curve and the energy condition in 2+1 dimensional gravity

We consider gravity in 2+1 dimensions in presence of extended stationary sources with rotational symmetry. We prove by direct use of Einstein's equations that if i) the energy momentum tensor satisfies the weak energy condition, ii) the universe is open (conical at space infinity), iii) there are no CTC at space infinity, then there are no CTC at all.Comment: 10 pages (REVTEX 3.0), IFUP-60/9

The implications of tax on a small business in New Zealand

Small businesses have little resources but must pay tax, so this investigation reports on the implications of tax on a small business. Literature is to be searched to identify the implications for small businesses

Book review: diaries: volume 5: outside, inside, 2003-2005 by Alastair Campbell

In the fifth volume of his published diaries, Outside, Inside, 2003-2005, Alastair Campbell steps down as Tony Blair’s Director of Communications in 2003 but is drawn back into politics amidst the continued chaos of the Iraq War, the breakdown of the Blair-Brown relationship and the impending election campaign. With the pace of a thriller, this book offers fascinating insights into Campbell’s struggle to forge a path outside of Westminster and a nuanced depiction of Brown, finds Peter Carrol

The psychophysiology of the defence reaction

This thesis is concerned with the Soviet formulation of physiological arousal reactions as ORs and DRs. The proposed association of the OR with the heightening of perceptual sensitivity and the DR with the attention of sensitivity renders this formulation of theoretical importance. The reported occurrence of directionally distinct forehead vasomotor responding in the two reactions holds considerable empirical interest. The initial experiment reported in Chapter 2 explored the generality of the Soviet formulation, i.e. whether physiological responses to complex, affective visual stimuli could be characterized as ORs and DRs. Forehead BVP was recorded as an index of forehead vasomotor responding. Changes in other physiological parameters, as a result of such stimultion, were also monitored. Whereas unpleasant homicide slides elicited extensive forehead constriction, indicative of the DR, mainly vasodilation, indicative of the CR; was observed with pleasant and interesting vis1al stimuli The unpleasant stimuli also tended to elicit the most persistently large SCRs, The effects of signal value on the nature of the response to such affective stimulation was then explored in Chapter 3. With the imposition of a “memory set” the differences noted in Chapter 2 were no longer observed Chapter 4 explored flexor and extensor EMG responses to such stimuli, to test a related hypothesis that linked. dominant flexor EMG activity with unpleasant stimulation and dominart extensor EMG activity with pleasant visual stimulation. Whereas the unpleasant homicide slides tended to elicit the most emphatic flexor EMG activity, extensor EMG responding did not differentiate slide conditions Chapter 5 explored individual differences in fore head BVP response to the unpleasant homicide slides. The extent of the forehead BVP constriction response showed little or no relationship to self report of distress and defensive style as defined by position on the R-S perceptual-personality dimension, However, R-S scale score did influence self-report of affective experience, S-s showing little forehead BVP constriction tended to look relatively longer at tile homicide pictures than S-s showing extensive forehead BVP constriction,. At the onset of the present thesis there were few accounts of Western experiments that monitored forehead vasomotor change. However, several such experiments have now been reported. The finding of some of these experiments that forehead vasomotor responding is an insensitive parameter, present; problems for the Soviet formulation. Consequently in Chapter 6 forehead vasomotor responding to moderate and intense simple auditory stimuli was re-examined Both forehead BVP and BV were monitored as indices of forehead vasomotor change. The results were generally in line with the earlier Soviet findings of differential forehead vasomotor responding to moderate and intense stimulation. A central assumption of the Soviet schema is that the OR and DR are associated respectively with increases and decreases in perceptual sensitivity. Chapter 7 reports an experiment which explored the relationship of forehead vasomotor responding and performance in a simple reaction time task. The results demonstrated an association between the presence of the DR and relatively slower reaction times and the OR and relatively faster reaction times. The findings of the present study suggest that forehead vasomotor measurement represents a useful addition to those more commonly employed psychophysiological variables, particularly in the study of phenomena that pass under the general heading of "stress” Further, doubt is cast on the classical “arousal” or “activation theory” view of autonomic function that regards autonomic change as reflecting only “intensive” and not “directional” aspects of behavior

Book review: utopia for realists and how we can get there by Rutger Bregman

With Utopia for Realists and How We Can Get There, Rutger Bregman offers a new blueprint for constructing a better society for all, advocating the implementation of seemingly ‘utopian’ ideas, such as universal basic income, along the way. This is an assured and ambitious book, writes Peter Carrol, that deserves to be widely read

Book review: another day in the death of America: a chronicle of ten short lives by Gary Younge

On an average day in the USA, seven children and teenagers will be shot dead. In Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives, journalist Gary Younge tells the stories of ten lives lost on one single day: 23 November 2013. This is a powerful, timely and important contribution to the debate on US gun culture and how US society particularly treats its African American citizens, writes Peter Carrol

Book review: speaking out: lessons in life and politics by Ed Balls

21 years after leaving a career in journalism to work for Labour in opposition, following shock defeat in the May 2015 general election, then UK Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls abruptly found himself without a job. In his new memoir, Speaking Out: Lessons in Life and Politics, he reflects on his life in politics, offering a wider commentary on Labour’s transition from opposition to power and back again as well as key political events and relationships of this period. While readers looking for answers to Labour’s current predicament may need to look elsewhere, this is a worthwhile and often moving account of one individual’s growth across a political life, finds Peter Carrol

Book review: the end of Eddy by Édouard Louis

With The End of Eddy, Édouard Louis gives an autobiographical account of his experience of homophobia and economic inequality growing up in Hallencourt, a village in the north of France where many live below the poverty line. While the book has being widely received for offering insight into current divisions within French society as well as the recent electoral success of Marine Le Pen, Peter Carrol also welcomes it as an elegantly written contribution to contemporary LGBT literature