‘Scotland's different’: Narratives of Scotland's distinctiveness in the post-Brexit-vote era

While Scotland has been portrayed as an outlier in the context of Brexit, we know relatively little about how ordinary people in Scotland, including a growing migrant population, make sense of this (political and media) narrative. In order to address this gap, in this article I look at everyday narratives of Scotland's distinctiveness in the post-Brexit-vote era among the long-settled population and Polish – and to a lesser degree other European Union – migrants in the East End of Glasgow. By drawing upon scholarship on everyday nationalism and imagined communities, I explore discursive claims which romanticise Scotland as different and ‘welcoming’ of immigration and position it in binary opposition to England. How is Scotland produced as different in the context of Brexit? How are these stories used to re-imagine increasingly diverse Scottish society? In what ways are they being employed by migrant communities

Urban nature and transnational lives

This paper explores ways in which first generation migrants living in a UK city engage with urban nature. Through understanding mundane connections with local nature (plants, animals and seasons), we attend to two questions ‘what can narratives of urban nature tell us about experiences of migration’, and inversely ‘what can diverse migrant voices tell us about experiences of urban nature’? We draw on interview data with 23 participants, all born overseas, with a diverse mix in terms of age (young adults to older retired people), gender, country of origin and length of time resident in the United Kingdom. The analysis focuses on three areas: multisensory engagements with weather, care for nature and how transnational identities surface through the relational dimensions of nature narratives. We conclude by highlighting the potential of embodied nature engagement to support a sense of wellbeing and transnational identity across the life‐course, with potential to more broadly reflect pluralist understandings of the urban environment

Climbing walls, making bridges: children of immigrants’ identity negotiations through capoeira and parkour in Turin.

Capoeira and parkour are two different body practices which have gained worldwide attention in urban settings in the last few decades. The following paper will explore how capoeira and parkour relate to the construction of identity paths amongst children of immigrants between 12 and 20 in Turin, Italy. It will do so by looking at how such practices are used by young men of migrant origin to negotiate and perform narratives of self-worth, belonging and recognition within marginalising and excluding urban environments. This study acknowledges that social identifications are created, negotiated and (re)produced through bodily and spatial means and within networks of power relations. Following this premise, the insights proposed in this paper suggest that the ambivalent and fluid use of bodies and spaces implied by capoeira and parkour can represent a meaningful lens to understand the embodied and spatial identity negotiations enacted by participants in their daily lives. This theoretical perspective will illuminate the place that active bodies, spaces and leisure practices take in the negotiation of social identities, and dynamics of inclusion/exclusion, enacted by youth of migrant origin within early twenty-first century Turin cityscape

‘Other’ Posts in ‘Other’ Places: Poland through a Postcolonial Lens?

Postcolonial theory has tended to focus on those spaces where European colonialism has had a territorial and political history. This is unsurprising, as much of the world is in this sense ‘postcolonial’. But not all of it. This article focuses on Poland, often theorised as peripheral to ‘old Europe’, and explores the application of postcolonial analyses to this ‘other’ place. The article draws upon reflections arising from a study of responses to ethnic diversity in Warsaw, Poland. In doing so we conclude that postcolonialism does indeed offer some important insights into understanding Polish attitudes to other nationalities, and yet more work also needs to be done to make the theoretical bridge. In the case of Poland we propose the ‘triple relation’ be the starting point for such work

PECULIARITIES OF PURINE METABOLISM AND LIPID PEROXIDATION IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION

Aim. To study purine metabolism and lipid peroxidation in patients with acute myocardial infarction with ST segment elevation (STEMI) in dependence on severity of acute heart failure (AHF). To evaluate effects of thrombolytic therapy on purine metabolism and lipid peroxidation.Material and methods. 91 patients (age 60,8±1,2 y.o.) with STEMI and AHF (Killip 1-3) was included into the study. Patients were randomized into 3 groups in dependence of AHF severity. Markers of purine metabolism (activity of 5’- nucleotidase, xantineoxidase and uric acid level) and lipid peroxidation (superoxide dismutase and catalase activity, superoxide-anione radical level) were evaluated.Results. Purine metabolism activity increases, antioxidant and prooxidant balance disturbs at the condition of energy deficiency. AHF progression leads to increase in xanthine oxidize activity, urinary acid level and lungs edematization. Thrombolytic therapy increases antioxidant activity (response on reperfusion), but does not lead to purine metabolism stabilization.Conclusion. Thus, severity of heart failure in patients with STEMI correlates with disorders of purine and lipid metabolism. Thrombolytic therapy leads to rising in antioxidant protection, but does not lead to stabilisation of purine metabolism