Gender, space and power : discourses on working women in Dundee's jute industry, c. 1870-1930

This thesis explores the discourses on working women in Dundee's jute industry c. 1870-1930. It examines how working women became knowable and visible, and some of the ways in which women negotiated the relationships of power within which they became placed. Dundee was dubbed 'a woman's town' because of the central role that women played in the city's jute industry. Although a recent range of historical scholarship has started to ask new questions about women's identities and experiences of work, this study stresses the importance of engaging more widely with questions of geography, gender, discourse and power-knowledge. I explore how working women were observed, represented and categorised through a variety of material spaces - mills and factories, streets and homes, and through a range of conceptual spaces - economic, philanthropic and medical. The thesis focuses on the very processes and gendered discourses through which working women were made known - the practices of domination and resistance, and surveillance and control, and the different forms of knowledge production, including journalism, accountancy and philanthropy. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which divisions between work and home, and boundaries between public and private, were affirmed, reaffirmed and contested by working women and other urban actors. It is suggested that the work of Michel Foucault and a wider range of geographical and feminist theory provide us with a particularly rich and pliable set of conceptual resources with which to probe working women's geographies and the processes of power-knowledge, in the Dundee context. I suggest that the web of discourse that produced Dundee's working women as objects of concern was aimed not at preventing women from working, but at scrutinising and managing every aspect of their lives

When Older Adults Use Moodle To Learn Languages...

This thesis deals with the underexplored intersection of digital language learning and older adult learners. It is framed within a sociocultural perspective and considers the three dimensions of learning: cognitive, affective and social. The central argument of this thesis is that older adult language learners can benefit from using Moodle as a social learning space that gives them the chance to engage in a community of practice. Moodle also provides pedagogical support, enabling learners to develop their knowledge and skills and use the target language to communicate with others. The overarching question is, what are the challenges and/or rewards for older adults using Moodle to learn languages? Following an interpretive, socio-constructivist paradigm, semi-structured interviews were analysed using inductive methods, and stimulated recall interviews were analysed using deductive analysis methods. These data were supported with extracts from the Moodle platform. The findings showed that digital language learning can be a liberating activity for older adults when part of a blended format. The online format offers compensatory benefits that enable positive outcomes for all learners. Using technologies such as Moodle is a new experience and learners sometimes feel anxious or unsure of their abilities. Through working with peers and/or family members, learners have proved they can overcome this fear and have come to enjoy participating in Moodle. As populations in societies around the world age, there will be an increase in the number of older adults studying foreign languages. This thesis demonstrates how the construction of online social learning spaces for older adult language learners can help by giving them the chance to participate in a community of practice, possibilities for language development, and the freedom to exercise agency

Beliefs about worry and pain amongst adolescents with and without chronic pain

Funding: This work was supported by Bath Spa University funding (grant number HEQREW, to EW). Acknowledgments: We sincerely thank all the young people who completed our survey.Peer reviewedPostprin

The benefits of community-based participatory arts activities for people living with dementia: a thematic scoping review

Background The drive towards living well with dementia has resulted in a growing recognition of the value of community-based participatory arts activities. This review aimed to explore their overall impact and holistic benefits for people with early to moderate stages of dementia. Methods Using a scoping review methodology and thematic analysis, this review explored relevant literature published between 2008 and 2019. Results 26 published papers were identified, comprising visual arts, literary arts, comedy, music and dance. The key themes included person-centred, in-the-moment approaches; participation and communication; attention and cognition; social cohesion and relationships; and the role of space, place and objects. Conclusions There is strong evidence in support of using participatory arts for dementia, regardless of art form. In-the-moment and person-centred approaches were deemed impactful. Further research is needed to explore the importance of setting, material culture and the methodological or theoretical perspectives in participatory arts and dementia research

Position statement and considerations for remotely delivered pulmonary rehabilitation services.

Statement and methods of development The challenge of access to pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) and meeting associated service demand is certainly not new. However, the COVID-19 pandemic set an unprecedented challenge evoking rapid adaptation of services. An inherent spotlight has been placed on remotely delivered services. As we look beyond the height of this pandemic, it is important to reflect and consider what has been learnt, and emerging perspectives on the future of PR service delivery. This document updates the ‘ACPRC statement and considerations for the remote delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation services during the COVID-19 pandemic’ (1) and seeks to provide pragmatic practical guidance for remotely delivered models of PR for healthcare professionals that should be used alongside local guidance. The recommendations provided are for guidance only, and may be updated in response to further national guidelines and new evidence. An online survey of PR healthcare professionals (ACPRC pulmonary rehabilitation provision during COVID-19 and beyond!) was conducted in the development of this document to scope current practice in PR services across the U.K. Informed by queries received by the ACPRC, the survey was first conducted in 2020 and repeated in July 2021 with the aim of capturing a snapshot of practice, one-year post onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was publicised and disseminated via Twitter using the @theACPRC handle, with request that one team member completed on behalf of their service. A summary of the 21 responses can be found in Appendix 1 which served to inform the content of this document. A literature review was undertaken to identify and integrate relevant published trials since the 2021 Cochrane review of telerehabilitation for people with chronic respiratory disease (2). Details of the search strategy can be found in Appendix 2 and summary of study characteristics and outcomes in Appendix 3. Anonymous feedback from four PR services was collated and analysed to identify common themes in experiences of remotely delivered PR services. A summary of this process and collated feedback can be found in Appendix 4. Key terms Remotely delivered models – the delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation services at a distance; the interaction between healthcare professional and participant using communication and information technologies, that may take place in real-time (synchronously) or asynchronously (1). It may be delivered by a virtual platform, an online web application or programme, or referred to as telerehabilitation (note: this terminology is used where studies have reported it). Field walking tests are commonly employed to evaluate exercise capacity, prescribe exercise, and evaluate treatment response in chronic respiratory diseases (3). The most valid, reliable and responsive ones are the six-minute walk test (6MWT), incremental (ISWT) and endurance walk test (ESWT). NACAP – the National Asthma and COPD Audit Programme is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP), and currently covers England and Wales. The programme is led by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and includes a pulmonary rehabilitation workstream. PRSAS – the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Services Accreditation Scheme was launched in April 2018, and is run by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP)

The liminality of training spaces: Places of private/public transitions

This paper draws upon research, conducted for the London West Learning and Skills Council, on the training experiences of women with dependent children. One of the striking revelations of the research, we suggest, is the way in which training spaces are used and perceived by women, which are often at odds with government intentions. To help make sense of women’s use of and motivation for training we utilise the concept of ‘liminality’ and the private/public imbrication to explain the ways in which women use, or are discouraged from using, training spaces. Further, how the varied and multiple uses women in our research have put training to in their own lives has encouraged us to rethink the relationship between the private and the public more generally. In the light of this, we suggest that training and the places in which training take place, have been neglected processes and spaces within feminist geography and might usefully be explored further to add to an extensive literature on women’s caring and domestic roles and their role in the paid workplace

Drift-dependent changes in iceberg size-frequency distributions

Although the size-frequency distributions of icebergs can provide insight into how they disintegrate, our understanding of this process is incomplete. Fundamentally, there is a discrepancy between iceberg power-law size-frequency distributions observed at glacial calving fronts and lognormal size-frequency distributions observed globally within open waters that remains unexplained. Here we use passive seismic monitoring to examine mechanisms of iceberg disintegration as a function of drift. Our results indicate that the shift in the size-frequency distribution of iceberg sizes observed is a product of fracture-driven iceberg disintegration and dimensional reductions through melting. We suggest that changes in the characteristic size-frequency scaling of icebergs can be explained by the emergence of a dominant set of driving processes of iceberg degradation towards the open ocean. Consequently, the size-frequency distribution required to model iceberg distributions accurately must vary according to distance from the calving front