Designing the past: the National Trust as a social-material agency

The National Trust was founded in 1895 for ‘the preservation of places of historic interest or natural beauty’. While the distinction between the cultural and the natural seemed obvious at that time and members and visitors were not even implicated actors, we argue that the National Trust may be better understood as a co-constructed network effect of the social and material, which in turn affords social-material agency. There are currently 3.5 million members of the National Trust and 50 million visitors every year to National Trust properties, which include the largest collection of gardens in the world and over 300 historic houses and open-air properties. While the notion of design itself may seem to be an exemplar of the humanist love of agency, we argue (following Latour) that traditional notions of agency, which were asymmetrically distributed to the human actors, take insufficient cognisance of evident occasions of ‘material agency’ (Pickering, 1995) and the site of conservation is one site whereby the agency produced by social-material assemblages seems interesting and revealing. Whereas the social-material practices of design may seem in some tension with those of conservation, we argue in this paper that a close analysis of a particular site of conservation shows a manifold of ‘designing’ actors. Whatever the National Trust conserves could be considered as an example of particular and situated designs condensed from the interactions of humankind and nature. Similarly the visitor experience is also designed. While conservation can imply a certain social-material agency, it is much less well understood how conservation co-produces agency, and how these network effects serve the purposes of conservation by the Trust, visitors and other actors through the agency of the social and material. This paper will reveal some of the social-material practices which afford a visit to a property and what such visits afford the social-material practices of the National Trust

Parts Of The Whole: Thinking about Variance: Standards, Targets, Tracking, and Other Thoughts

Variation is a natural result of any process, including education. Understanding how variation propagates and increases is necessary for designing educational interventions that work for the intended population. We show how common strategies such as setting standards and tracking can accidentally produce unintended and undesirable results due to the way variation moves through a system

Growth of an idea to teach art through dramatics,

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1947. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

ICT4D Research – Literature Review and Conflict Perspective

ICTs can positively influence development outcomes. However, ICT4D projects have achieved limited success in achieving their development objectives. In this study, we conduct a literature review of ICT4D studies conducted over the period 2006 - 2016. We find that theory linking ICT use and development impact is lacking, and that mobile devices might offer high positive impact possibilities than personal computers. We also find that studies characterize development in different ways: 1) development as expanded digital inclusion, 2) development as increased economic productivity, 3) development as expanded freedom, and 4) development as increased well-being. Across these development perspectives, however, conflict among stakeholders impacts development outcomes. By examining the literature under the lens of postcolonial theory, we find that power asymmetry among stakeholders might increase the resource dependency of beneficiary communities on donors, and might lead to the former resisting further ICT interventions

Selberg\u27s trace formula on the k-regular tree and applications

We survey graph theoretic analogues of the Selberg trace and pretrace formulas along with some applications. This paper includes a review of the basic geometry of a k-regular tree E (symmetry group, geodesies, horocycles, and the analogue of the Laplace operator). A detailed discussion of the spherical functions is given. The spherical and horocycle transforms are considered (along with three basic examples, which may be viewed as a short table of these transforms). Two versions of the pretrace formula for a finite connected k-regular graph ×□Γ\Ξ are given along with two applications. The first application is to obtain an asymptotic formula for the number of closed paths of length r in × (without backtracking but possibly with tails). The second application is to deduce the chaotic properties of the induced geodesic flow on × (which is analogous to a result of Wallace for a compact quotient of the Poincaré upper half plane). Finally, the Selberg trace formula is deduced and applied to the Ihara zeta function of X, leading to a graph theoretic analogue of the prime number theorem. © 2003 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved

Open Calculus: A Free Online Learning Environment

Dartmouth College mathematicians have developed a free online calculus course called "Open Calculus." Open Calculus is an exportable distance-learning/self-study environment for learning calculus including written text, nearly 4000 online homework problems and instructional videos. The paper recounts the evaluation of course elements since 2000 in two experimental/control course situations involving nearly 300 students

Business in Nebraska #297 - June 1969

Nebraska\u27s Export of Agricultural Products (Dorothy Switzer) Nebraska moved up from fourth to third place among the seven states in the West North Central region in dollar volume of agricultural exports in fiscal 1968 and retained its position as ninth ranking state in the nation, according to recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sales amounting to $229.5 million of Nebraska farm products constituted 14.5$1,578.9 billion in volume of sales. Business Summary (R. L. Busboom) Generally, the State\u27s business activity in March was well above that of last year. A 13 percent rise in physical volume combined with the well - known rise in level of prices to effect an overall dollar volume increase of 30 percent. A large increase in construction activity was the major factor in the overall, year -to -year gain. Employment levels were notably higher in 1969 than in 1968. Manufacturing employment was nearly 5 percent higher and other employment showed a gain of 4 percent. Revised Population Estimates (E. S. Wallace) In making 1968 county and city population estimates it was necessary to change slightly the methodology used, since the head tax has been repealed and is no longer available as one of the indicators. In connection with publication of 1968 estimates in our April issue it was stated that some previous estimates would be recalculated using the new method and that if substantial differences were indicated previous estimates would be revised. Review

Business in Nebraska #294 - March 1969

Extent of Corporation Farming in Nebraska (Dorothy Switzer) Concern has been expressed in many quarters over the apparent increase in the number of nonfarm corporations that are buying land and initiating new farming enterprises in Nebraska. It has become important, therefore, to know the facts about the number of these corporations and the amount of farm land they are operating in the state. This information has recently been made available because Nebraska is one of 22 states included in a preliminary report summarizing a survey of corporate farming. Reprints State and Local Taxes in Nebraska (E. S. Wallace) According to figures recently released Nebrdska ranked 32nd among the 50 states in state and local taxes per resident in 1907. Of the 18 states below Nebraska, 11 were in the Southeast Region. In the Plains Region only Missouri and North Dakota were lower. Review Business Summary (R. L. Busboom) Both Physical Volume and Dollar Volume indexes indicate Nebraska\u27s general level of business activity in December, 1968, was that above that of the same month last year. Both indexes also indicate that the November, 1968, general level of business appears to have been maintained through December. Both the Nebraska indexes were, however, at levels approximately 4% lower than those of the U.S. On a month-to-month bases, however, Nebraska\u27s changes were nearly equal to those of the U.S

Business In Nebraska #244- January 1965

Stock and Bond Yields (Keith Broman) The recent change in the Federal Reserve discount rate has focused attention on interest rates both here and abroad. Equally important is the relationship between bond and stock yields. Business Summary (Kim McNealy) In October, the dollar volume of business for Nebraska rose 4.6% from the same month in 1963, but dropped 3.7% from September of 1964. The same index for the U.S. behaved similarly, the dollar volume of business rising 2.1% from October, 1963, and falling 1.9% from September, 1964. Business activity as measured by the Physical Volume Index increased 2.5% over last year in both Nebraska and the U.S. Compared to last month, the volume of Business transacted decreased a slight 1.5% in Nebraska and .9% in the U.S. In the individual series, construction activity registered the greatest decline from September, having dropped 9.1%. Employment changed only slightly in both Nebraska and the nation over the same period. Financing Higher Education (E. S. Wallace) The benefits of higher education are probably more highly esteemed and more universally sought after now than ever before. Hardly anyone would deny today that both society and the individual are richer, in material as well as in cultural terms, because of the contributions of our colleges and universities. A college degree has become not just a status symbol but an actual prerequisite for many kinds of employment. Indeed, recent studies have shown that a college education is the common characteristic of leaders in industry, government, and the professions. Education has made it possible for the sons of janitors, unskilled laborers, and tenant farmers to become college presidents, corporate executives, and surgeons. Creating New Jobs (E. S. Wallace) Conventional industrial development programs seek to create more jobs by establishing new manufacturing plants. Another way of making more jobs, however, is to build up the volume of existing plants. Wisconsin has recently completed a project aimed at increasing industrial employment in northern and rural areas of the state by bringing more business to plants already in operation. Reviews in Brie