The UK’s ‘Brexit’ referendum represents a victory for the forces of populist Euroscepticism

The UK is currently engaged in a renegotiation of the terms of its membership of the European Union, in advance of an ‘in/out’ referendum which will be held at a to-be-determined date at some point in the next two years. Here, Dr. Chris Gifford argues that the very holding of that referendum represents a victory for the forces of populist Euroscepticism in the UK

Citizenship Education in China

Review of:Kennedy, K. J., Fairbrother, G.P., and Zhao Zhenzhou (2014) Citizenship Education in China: Preparing Citizens for the “Chinese Century” Abingdon and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-50272-

It’s the question, stupid: democracy experts respond to the EU referendum question proposals

The Electoral Commission has this week set out its advice on the wording of the question in a proposed referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union. In this post, leading democracy experts share their views on the alternative questions, considering the implications for the campaign and drawing on evidence from previous referendums in the UK and elsewhere

‘For people so young they had so much to offer’: implementing active citizenship in the UK undergraduate social science curriculum

Citizenship education is not restricted to schools and there have been a number of publicly funded initiatives to develop citizenship education in UK universities and higher education colleges. This paper contributes to the developing literature in this area with reference to evaluation research undertaken in relation to one module, ‘Citizenship and Identity’, delivered to first year social science undergraduates at a Higher Education Institute. This module included an active citizenship element in which students worked jointly with local school pupils at several conferences held at the HEI. We discuss the undergraduates’ reflections on their involvement in the module, including the school participation element, in relation to Faulks’ recent critique of citizenship education and also the local context

Freshwater ecoacoustics as a tool for continuous ecosystem monitoring

Copyright by the Ecological Society of AmericaPassive acoustic monitoring is gaining popularity in ecology as a practical and non-invasive approach to surveying ecosystems. This technique is increasingly being used to monitor terrestrial systems, particularly bird populations, given that it can help to track temporal dynamics of populations and ecosystem health without the need for expensive resampling. We suggest that underwater acoustic monitoring presents a viable, non-invasive, and largely unexplored approach to monitoring freshwater ecosystems, yielding information about three key ecological elements of aquatic environments – (1) fishes, (2) macroinvertebrates, and (3) physicochemical processes – as well as providing data on anthropogenic noise levels. We survey the literature on this approach, which is substantial but scattered across disciplines, and call for more cross-disciplinary work on recording and analysis techniques. We also discuss technical issues and knowledge gaps, including background noise, spatiotemporal variation, and the need for centralized reference collection repositories. These challenges need to be overcome before the full potential of passive acoustics in dynamic detection of biophysical processes can be realized and used to inform conservation practitioners and managers

The United Kingdoms Eurosceptic political economy

This article explores how a political economy approach can explicate recent events in the United Kingdom’s relation to the European Union. The proposition is that neither critical nor comparative approaches do justice to the extent to which British elites have sought to differentiate the UK from the EU. The UK is here understood as a Eurosceptic political economy, constructed in opposition to European integration and, in particular, Economic and Monetary. The article explores how we have witnessed a hardening of this Eurosceptic political economy in the context of the Eurozone crisis. The most distinctive feature of which, as seen in the referendum campaign, is the extent to which the economic case for withdrawal has been established as part of the mainstream of British political debate

Populism and its impact on young people

This document explores the phenomenon of populism in Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of North Macedonia, focusing on its manifestations, implications, and impact on education. ​ It discusses the characteristics of populism, its historical context, and the challenges faced by educators in addressing it. ​ The document emphasizes the importance of understanding and responding to populism in order to protect democratic values, promote inclusive education, and counter the spread of populist messages through social media. ​ It also presents a teacher training program that integrates the findings of a research report on populism and provides pedagogical strategies for addressing it. ​ The program includes sessions on teacher professional development, curriculum re-evaluation, and defending democratic norms. ​ Overall, the document highlights the need for critical thinking, historical context teaching, global perspectives exploration, and civil society involvement to address the challenges posed by populism in education.

A comprehensive database of quality-rated fossil ages for Sahul\u27s Quaternary vertebrates

The study of palaeo-chronologies using fossil data provides evidence for past ecological and evolutionary processes, and is therefore useful for predicting patterns and impacts of future environmental change. However, the robustness of inferences made from fossil ages relies heavily on both the quantity and quality of available data. We compiled Quaternary non-human vertebrate fossil ages from Sahul published up to 2013. This, the FosSahul database, includes 9,302 fossil records from 363 deposits, for a total of 478 species within 215 genera, of which 27 are from extinct and extant megafaunal species (2,559 records). We also provide a rating of reliability of individual absolute age based on the dating protocols and association between the dated materials and the fossil remains. Our proposed rating system identified 2,422 records with high-quality ages (i.e., a reduction of 74%). There are many applications of the database, including disentangling the confounding influences of hypothetical extinction drivers, better spatial distribution estimates of species relative to palaeo-climates, and potentially identifying new areas for fossil discovery

From mood to movement: English nationalism, the European Union and taking back control

This article considers whether the 2016 EU referendum can be perceived as an English nationalist movement. Specifically, attention is given to examining how memories of the former British Empire were nostalgically enveloped in anxieties regarding England’s location within the devolved UK state. The comments and work of Enoch Powell and George Orwell are used to help explore the link between nostalgia and anxiety in accounts of English nationalism. Despite their opposing political orientations, when considered together, it is argued that both men provide a unique cross-political perspective on Englishness, empire and nostalgia. By way of exploring these themes in relation to the EU referendum, Aughey’s assertion that English nationalism can be perceived as both a ‘mood’ and ‘movement’ is used to highlight how a sense of English anxiety regarding its lack of national sovereignty (mood), as well as a desire to reclaim this sovereignty by renegotiating trade relations with the ‘Anglo-sphere’ (movement), were conjoined in the popular referendum slogan, ‘take back control’. In conclusion, it is argued that the contextualization of the referendum can be predicated upon an orientation to empire that steers away from glorifying pro-imperial images of England/Britain, towards a more positive and progressive appropriation of the EU referendum as a statement of national change and belonging