COVID‐19, nationalism, and the politics of crisis: A scholarly exchange

In this article, several scholars of nationalism discuss the potential for the COVID‐19 pandemic to impact the development of nationalism and world politics. To structure the discussion, the contributors respond to three questions: (1) how should we understand the relationship between nationalism and COVID‐19; (2) will COVID‐19 fuel ethnic and nationalist conflict; and (3) will COVID‐19 reinforce or erode the nation‐state in the long run? The contributors formulated their responses to these questions near to the outset of the pandemic, amid intense uncertainty. This made it acutely difficult, if not impossible, to make predictions. Nevertheless, it was felt that a historically and theoretically informed discussion would shed light on the types of political processes that could be triggered by the COVID‐19 pandemic. In doing so, the aim is to help orient researchers and policy‐makers as they grapple with what has rapidly become the most urgent issue of our times

Solid intentions:an archival ethnography of corporate architecture and organizational remembering

Research on organizational spaces has not considered the importance of collective memory for the process of investing meaning in corporate architecture. Employing an archival ethnography approach, practices of organizational remembering emerge as a way to shape the meanings associated with architectural designs. While the role of monuments and museums are well established in studies of collective memory, this research extends the concept of spatiality to the practices of organizational remembering that focus on a wider selection of corporate architecture. By analyzing the historical shift from colonial to modernist architecture for banks and retailers in Ghana and Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s on the basis of documents and photographs from three different companies, this article shows how archival sources can be used to untangle the ways in which companies seek to ascribe meaning to their architectural output. Buildings allude to the past and the future in a range of complex ways that can be interpreted more fully by reference to the archival sources and the historical context of their creation. Social remembering has the potential to explain why and how buildings have meaning, while archival ethnography offers a new research approach to investigate changing organizational practices

Britain and globalization

Many perspectives on globalization see it as differentiated in its effects and reception, culturally driven, either pre-modern or post-modern, best captured by globalist or sceptical perspectives, and an equalising phenomenon. This article discusses the British experience of globalization in the light of such approaches and argues that looking at this case gives an alternative view. Six themes on globalization are explored across four areas of the British experience of globalization. It is argued that in Britain globalization is, in contrast to the approaches outlined above, differentiated but also generalising, economically driven, modern, best understood with a mix of globalist and sceptical perspectives and structured by power, inequality and conflict. It is also argued that the British experience of globalization is a specific one and that Britain is a very globalized and globalizing country, economically, culturally and politically

Q methodology and rural research

Traditionally, rural scholarship has been limited in its methodological approach. This has begun to change in recent years as rural researchers have embraced a range of different methodological tools. The aim of this article is to contribute to greater methodological pluralism in rural sociology by introducing readers to a method of research that is rarely engaged in the field, that is, Q methodology. The article describes the defining features of the approach as well as providing examples of its application to argue that it is a method that offers particular opportunities and synergies for rural social science research

Mutual aid groups in psychiatry and substance misuse

Background: Mutuality is a feature of many ‘self-help groups’ for people with mental health and/or substance misuse needs. These groups are diverse in terms of membership, aims, organisation and resources. Collectively, in terms of the pathways for seeking help, support, social capital or simply validation as people, mutual aid groups figure at some time in the life story of many psychiatric and/or substance misuse patients. From the viewpoint of clinical services, relations with such groups range from formal collaboration, through incidental shared care, via indifference, to incomprehension, suspicion, or even hostility. How should mental health and substance misuse clinicians relate to this informal care sector, in practice? Aims: To synthesise knowledge about three aspects of the relationship between psychiatric/substance misuse services and mutual aid groups: profile groups' engagement of people with mental health and/or substance misuse needs at all stages of vulnerability, illness or recovery; characterise patterns of health benefit or harm to patients, where such outcome evidence exists; identify features of mutual aid groups that distinguish them from clinical services. Method: A search of both published and unpublished literature with a focus on reports of psychiatric and substance misuse referral routes and outcomes, compiled for meta-synthesis. Results: Negative outcomes were found occasionally, but in general mutual aid group membership was repeatedly associated with positive benefits. Conclusions: Greater awareness of this resource for mental health and substance misuse fields could enhance practice

The tuberculosis necrotizing toxin kills macrophages by hydrolyzing NAD.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) induces necrosis of infected cells to evade immune responses. Recently, we found that Mtb uses the protein CpnT to kill human macrophages by secreting its C-terminal domain, named tuberculosis necrotizing toxin (TNT), which induces necrosis by an unknown mechanism. Here we show that TNT gains access to the cytosol of Mtb-infected macrophages, where it hydrolyzes the essential coenzyme NAD(+). Expression or injection of a noncatalytic TNT mutant showed no cytotoxicity in macrophages or in zebrafish zygotes, respectively, thus demonstrating that the NAD(+) glycohydrolase activity is required for TNT-induced cell death. To prevent self-poisoning, Mtb produces an immunity factor for TNT (IFT) that binds TNT and inhibits its activity. The crystal structure of the TNT-IFT complex revealed a new NAD(+) glycohydrolase fold of TNT, the founding member of a toxin family widespread in pathogenic microorganisms

British trade unions and the academics: the case of Unionlearn

Unionlearn and union learning representatives were developed by the British TUC to match workers with education and training opportunities, strengthen the economy, foster market inclusion and facilitate social mobility. Their contribution to union revitalisation was emphasised. This article questions whether, with unions confronting global crisis, this is a necessary initiative. It stemmed from TUC failure to achieve policy goals, institutional needs, consequent acceptance of a lesser role, and the availability of state finance. Claims by academics that it provides influence over state policy and contributes to revitalisation remain inadequately evidenced. Union resurgence is not immanent. The way forward is through adversarial grassroots organising and socialist education, not through retooling capital, improving members’ marketability and partnership with a hostile state

Information effect on voter turnout: How campaign spending mobilises voters

We explore the impact of campaign effort on constituency-level turnout variation in Britain, under the premise that higher levels of campaign visibility stimulate electoral participation. We focus on the relationship between the competitiveness of the race and campaign effort as a provider of electoral information on the one hand, and voter turnout on the other hand. In doing so, we address the role of campaign effort and competitiveness in shaping turnout both independently as well as jointly. Further to this, we seek to add nuance to our understanding of how electoral campaigns mobilise voters by evaluating the comparative ability of different parties – based on whether or not they are ‘viable’ contenders in a particular constituency – to stimulate turnout. We find evidence that campaign effort mobilises voters and has a significant positive effect on voter turnout; this effect is independent from, and unconditioned by, the competitiveness of the race. However, we do find that this effect is mostly driven by the campaign effort of the ‘viable’ contenders in the constituency

Information effect on voter turnout: How campaign spending mobilises voters

We explore the impact of campaign effort on constituency-level turnout variation in Britain, under the premise that higher levels of campaign visibility stimulate electoral participation. We focus on the relationship between the competitiveness of the race and campaign effort as a provider of electoral information on the one hand, and voter turnout on the other hand. In doing so, we address the role of campaign effort and competitiveness in shaping turnout both independently as well as jointly. Further to this, we seek to add nuance to our understanding of how electoral campaigns mobilise voters by evaluating the comparative ability of different parties – based on whether or not they are ‘viable’ contenders in a particular constituency – to stimulate turnout. We find evidence that campaign effort mobilises voters and has a significant positive effect on voter turnout; this effect is independent from, and unconditioned by, the competitiveness of the race. However, we do find that this effect is mostly driven by the campaign effort of the ‘viable’ contenders in the constituency