33 research outputs found
âCommunityâ: the ends and means of sustainability? Exploring the position and influence of community-led initiatives in encouraging more sustainable lifestyles in remote rural Scotland
This research explored the role of community-led initiatives in encouraging the uptake
of more sustainable lifestyles within the social and physical context of remote rural
Scotland. Participant observation with Arlen Eco Trust (AET) and Thriving Thornton
(TT), two community-led sustainability initiatives funded by the Scottish Governmentâs
Climate Challenge Fund (CCF), led to findings which challenge the common
assumption that funding for community-led initiatives will be of net benefit at the local
level.
In line with the requirements of the CCF, both AET and TT define community in terms
of geography. However, only a small minority of the members of the geographically-defined
communities of Arlen and Thornton were found to be actively involved in the
groupsâ activities or objectives. Both Arlen and Thornton were observed to be
segmented into multiple and diverse âcommunities within communitiesâ and, rather than
representing âthe communityâ, AET and TT can more accurately be understood as an
example of sub-communities in themselves.
This sub-division within the communities was found to be exacerbated by the fact that
both the governance and management of AET and TT were observed to be undertaken
primarily by individuals regarded as âincomersâ to Arlen and Thornton, which resulted in
an âincomerâ identity being passed on to the group and its activities. Historic
connotations with âincomersâ as disruptive to traditional ways of life were found to
resonate with the suspicion and scepticism expressed by some âlocalsâ wary of âincomerâ
groups that were actively trying to change local lifestyles.
The groupsâ ability to engage with the wider geographic community was also observed
to be further weakened in several ways by the receipt of government grant funding. The
short timescales and expected outputs associated with many funding schemes were
found to be discordant with the long-term sustainability goals of the community groups
studied, and participation in top-down funding programmes was found to reduce the
time and resources available for âhands onâ community participation activities.
Furthermore, the need for groups to adapt their ambitions and approach to align with
top-down demands from funders is incongruent with the notion of a âcommunity-ledâ
initiative.
Together, these local conditions were found to have significant implications with respect
to the impact and influence of AET and TT. The funding received by the groups was
found to create pockets of social capital â rather than being distributed through the
geographic community â which served to strengthen the group, but segment the wider
population, implying that, rather than increasing local social sustainability, schemes such
as the CCF may be undermining it.
Overall, this thesis concludes that, whilst the CCF was observed to facilitate community
as a means by which to reduce carbon emissions, âcommunityâ was not being
strengthened as a policy end. As such, it questions whether current mechanisms of
central government funding for isolated, self-identified community-led groups to deliver
finite, output-driven projects will inherently help to empower geographic communities
to adopt more sustainable lifestyles
Who benefits and how? Public expectations of public benefits from data-intensive health research
The digitization of society and academic research endeavours have led to an explosion of interest in the potential uses of population data in research. Alongside this, increasing attention is focussing on the conditions necessary for maintaining a social license for research practices. Previous research has pointed to the importance of demonstrating âpublic benefitsâ from research for maintaining public support, yet there has been very little consideration of what the term âpublic benefitsâ means or what public expectations of âpublic benefitsâ are. In order to address this pressing issue a series of deliberative workshops with members of the public were held across Scotland in May and June 2017. The workshops aimed to engage a cross-section of the Scottish population in in-depth discussions of the ways that the public â or publics â might benefit from data-intensive health research. The findings reported here discuss workshop participantsâ understandings and expectations of health research; who they considered to be âthe publicâ that should benefit from health research and; in what ways they felt âthe publicâ should benefit. Workshop participantsâ preference was clearly for the widest possible public benefit to be felt by all, but they also acknowledged the value in research aiming to primarily benefit vulnerable groups within society. A key focus of discussions was the extent to which workshop participants were confident that potential public benefits would be realised. A crucial consideration then is the extent to which mechanisms and political support are in place to realise and maximise the public benefits of data-intensive health research
WSLDI: Women Staff Leadership Development Institute
This brief reviews the Case Western Reserve University Women Staff Leadership Development Institute, including participant evaluation data and national experiences of women staff in higher education.https://commons.case.edu/mathercenter-briefs/1001/thumbnail.jp
Feminist Attitudes, Behaviors, and Culture Shaping Womenâs Center Practice
The present article contributes to the growing research on womenâs centers to extend and encourage the role of feminism in womenâs center within higher education. We provide a brief history of feminism and womenâs centers in higher education to illuminate the connections between previous research and our womenâs center research on community perceptions of feminisms
Thermodynamics of Binding by Calmodulin Correlates with Target Peptide α-Helical Propensity
In this work, we have examined contributions to the thermodynamics of calmodulin (CaM) binding from the intrinsic propensity for target peptides to adopt an α-helical conformation. CaM target sequences are thought to commonly reside in disordered regions within proteins. Using the ability of TFE to induce α-helical structure as a proxy, the six peptides studied range from having almost no propensity to adopt α-helical structure through to a very high propensity. This despite all six peptides having similar CaM-binding affinities. Our data indicate there is some correlation between the deduced propensities and the thermodynamics of CaM binding. This finding implies that molecular recognition features, such as CaM target sequences, may possess a broad range of propensities to adopt local structure. Given that these peptides bind to CaM with similar affinities, the data suggest that having a higher propensity to adopt α-helical structure does not necessarily result in tighter binding, and that the mechanism of CaM binding is very dependent on the nature of the substrate sequence