Projects for regeneration: Making them work

YesThe study analyses approaches to the management of two projects within the regeneration portfolio of a large UK metropolitan council. Developing a theoretical framework drawing both from mainstream project methodologies and international development, the study highlights a number of key issues which need to be addressed, including entrepreneurship, participation, stakeholder buy-in, project lifecycles and benefit management. Key lessons emerging from the study include the need to foster entrepreneurship within the controlled environment of the project and the importance of setting programme targets which are appropriately orientated to harness the interdependent nature of benefits of regeneration projects in the public sector.Non

Keeping children safe : allegations concerning the abuse or neglect of children in care

For most looked after children and young people, foster and residential care provides a safe environment. This study has focused on the minority of children who do not always receive safe care and who, in some instances, experience abuse or neglect at the hands of those responsible for ensuring their wellbeing. Despite long-standing concerns about historic abuse in children's homes and about the implications of allegations for foster carers and their families, very little is known about the extent of these allegations. We know even less about the proportion of allegations that are substantiated, the nature of the abuse and neglect experienced by some children in care settings and the characteristics of the adults and children involved. The aim of this study was to investigate these important questions. It provides new UK evidence on: * the number of allegations against foster carers and residential social workers and the proportion of these that are substantiated * the extent and nature of confirmed abuse and neglect in foster and residential care * the characteristics of the children and adults concerned

A minimum income standard for Britain : What people think

A minimum income standard, based on what people said is needed to achieve an acceptable standard of living in Britain today. While politicians from all parties are committed to tackling relative poverty, the debates lack a robust definition of a minimum income standard (MIS), below which people’s incomes should not fall. This study devised a minimum income standard for Britain based on what members of the public said, and shows the cost of covering basic goods and services for different household types. The project blends the best elements of the two main methods that have been used to develop budget standards in Britain in recent years. It reconciles the views of experts with those of ordinary people, allowing budgets based on social consensus to be tested against expert knowledge and research. As such, the MIS represents a new and important tool for informing social policy in order to promote fairness and well-being in Britain

A choir still: sustaining a choir through the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper draws together three of the areas of interest suggested in the recent call for papers on the role of music during COVID-19: technologies and communication; narratives and reflections, and the impact of music upon wellbeing. At the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown measures in the UK, choirs all over the country were forced to abandon their normal pattern of rehearsals and concerts. The London Welsh community choir that I lead, and another that I sing with, did so before the lockdown officially began and immediately moved their rehearsals online. Since then, rehearsals have continued weekly, and the choirs have come together to produce a virtual performance of a new piece setting words written by a choir member in direct response to experiencing a virtual rehearsal for the first time. The work is now available for other choirs to perform virtually, alongside all of the supporting materials that allow virtual performances to be produced. Based upon these experiences, this paper reflects on the experience of guiding an amateur choir through the pandemic, the technological affordances and challenges presented by this, its effect on the choir as a community, and the importance of this to individuals within the choir. It will discuss, in particular: the composition, rehearsal, and performance of the aforementioned choral work, ‘yn un rhith’, the attempt to recreate a sense of liveness for both performers and audience, and the responses to the performance from both singers and audience; the experience of leading rehearsals virtually, the qualitative change in the connection between participants, and the changed rehearsal soundscape; and the impact of regular virtual rehearsals and a virtual performance upon participants and their sense of wellbeing and structure, drawing on direct, anonymised, quotations

Picture books as art : the presence of children\u27s book illustrations in museums and an analysis of children-visitor interactions at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

This paper analyzes the presence of children\u27s picture book illustrations in cultural settings, particularly the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts and the New York Public Library in New York City, and determines how children interact with these spaces

Barriers to Sustainable Hunting-Based Conservation of Elephants in Zimbabwe

The international demand for ivory has devastated African elephant populations. In 2015, more elephants were poached for ivory than were born. Many countries have sought to decrease poaching pressures through ivory trade bans. However, Zimbabwe, home to the second largest African elephant population, funds its anti-poaching efforts with revenue from ivory exports. The ivory bans implemented by other countries prevent Zimbabwe from generating many sources of ivory revenue. These bans hamper Zimbabwe’s ability to fund anti-poaching efforts and exacerbate the complex interactions between the social, economic, and political factors which contribute to poaching. Increasing the understanding of the relationships between poaching factors and poaching policy responses is therefore vital. The DPSIR (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impacts, and Responses) framework is utilized to understand how the interactions between poaching factors and policy responses create feedback loops that may increase poaching. This analysis identifies the key areas for policy intervention: economic stagnation, human wildlife conflicts, and political corruption. Coping strategies are recommended for each area to potentially decrease elephant poaching pressures in Zimbabwe

Henrietta Howard: mistress, survivor, imperialist?

Traditionally, Henrietta Howard has been seen through the lens of her role as George II's mistress and a ‘woman of reason’ who was connected to the leading men of her day. More recently, Henrietta Howard has been reinterpreted as a minor feminist icon: a survivor, who overcame childhood tragedy, an abusive marriage, and the patriarchal system to become a leading cultural patron, living in comfort at the home she built, Marble Hill. This article seeks to situate Henrietta as a beneficiary of, and participant in, imperial activity and exchange. Today these two interpretations - Henrietta as ‘survivor’ and Henrietta as ‘imperialist’;- feel at odds with one another. Present-day attitudes mean that a feel-good, ‘girlboss’; feminist narrative about Henrietta’s life, does not sit easily with the fact that she benefitted from transatlantic slavery. However, I argue the two readings can be reconciled, creating a new interpretation, when we consider that it was through imperial activity that Georgian women such as Henrietta Howard were able to materially benefit, survive and even thrive